Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Shoe, no shoe

This is the week the podiatrist said I could try wearing a shoe. I did yesterday. Thought I was going to die! Things were hurting almost as bad as when I fell. I called the office this morning and asked if that was suppose to happen. The nurse suggested I go back to the boot for a few days and then try the shoe again. If it's still giving me trouble they want to see me before my May 10 appointment. Don't forget...There are only 17 days until the Orlando trip. This is not looking good for going without the boot.

Saturday I had a great time at my all-day scrapbooking event. I got 20 pages done in Mayhem #1's book. I think I'm going to need a third book to get all of high school in, as well as, another book just for band trips. I need to work on the journaling part. I'm way behind on that. It's really what I should do while I'm staying at home alot.

Mr. Mayhem went to see Mayhem #1 for Dad Weekend. They went to the first three innings of the school's baseball game and then left because her back was hurting on the benches.(Probably her bum was hurting too.) They really left because he doesn't like baseball. Mr. Mayhem still got sunburned. The man never wears sunscreen.

Mayhem #2 was left to her own devices at home. I rented her a movie to watch and made a list of chores for her to do. I also made a silly list of fun things to do. On the silly list I put "Eat Lunch." However, I didn't put "Eat Dinner." Therefore at 9:30 when we told her to get off her computer game and get ready for bed because we were exhausted, she said, "But I havent' had dinner." My response...."Who's fault is that?"

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Weekend cont.

Now to finish the weekend story. Saturday morning found Mayhem #2 watching her cartoons. (She complains about getting up for school and church, but she’s up before the crack of dawn for the cartoons.) Mr. Mayhem went to have lunch with a friend. Mayhem #1 went and filled out another job application, (she’s still looking for a summer job) and I did laundry. That evening, I took the girls over to the mall where the Disney store is so Mayhem #1 could ask about that job she had applied for at spring break. Then we had to make a few stops so she could get an Easter gift to send to the Boyfriend. After that we went home. My foot hurt and Mayhem #2 needed to practice an instrument or two. Mayhem #1 was reading "Paradise Lost" for Brit. Lit.

Later that evening Mayhem #2 shows up in the living room crying. I ask what’s wrong and the response I get, "Nothing." I kept asking and I kept getting the same answer. I finally figured out that she had wanted to go to the bookstore and we didn’t make it there. These emotional rollercoasters are killing me.

Sunday School and church were good. I had warned them the night before that I wasn’t putting up with any attitudes on Easter. I’m surprised it worked. I looked over at Mayhem #1 during church and she looked like she was going to cry. I’m thinking, "Not again." Come to find out her back was hurting a lot. She laid down when we got home. Mr. Mayhem ate lunch and went to take a nap since he would get the honor of taking Mayhem #1 back to school. The Boyfriend called and woke up Mayhem #1. I could tell from the giggling coming from the room. Mayhem #2 came out of her room moping around. She plops on the couch and I look over and she’s curled up in a ball asleep. Then she flops back the other way and sleeps some more. Mayhem #1 finally decides to pack what little of the stuff she brought home that she’s taking back to school.

After she and Mr. Mayhem leave, Mayhem asks to go to the bookstore to buy a book. I point out that with the trip to Disneyworld coming up, she may want to save her money to buy t-shirts, keychains, and the like. She doesn’t like that answer. I coax her into better spirits by checking out the Disneyworld website with her. We decide to go to Dairy Queen for dinner. Another trick to keep her in good spirits. On the way she opened up and shared that she feels kind of neglected when Mayhem #1 comes home. I apologized for that and we discussed how crazy our lives were now that she was in high school, Mayhem #1 was in college, and my mom lives here in town. We agreed that Mr. Mayhem was just crazy.

The weekend ended pretty good, but there for a while, I thought I was going to run away from home. Too much emotional spew!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Worn out

Have I mentioned that moms don’t get paid enough? And my weekend is proof of it.

I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to pick up Mayhem #1 later in the day on Thursday after I brought Mayhem #2 home from school. That didn’t happen because Mayhem #2 didn’t go to school. She woke up feeling dizzy. She had felt this way on Palm Sunday as well and she and I didn’t make it to church. Since this had happened twice and seemed rather odd, I took her to the doctor. Of course, our doctor wasn’t there so we saw a different one. She couldn’t find anything like an ear infection or sinus infection. She even checked her for anemia. That wasn’t it either. The doctor said it could be the beginning of an illness that hadn’t shown up with other symptoms yet or it could one of these weird teenage hormone things. I fed her some lunch, plopped her on the couch, played a movie, and told her to finish her maps after the movie. Mr. Mayhem was to call and check on her.

So about 2:00pm I headed to get Mayhem #1. After almost falling on the dorm stairs outside, I stayed at the top of the stairs and took all the stuff from there to the car. She had to bring it from the dorm room to the top of the stairs. With her broken bum and my broken foot, we were quite a pair. She brought home a bunch of stuff that she was leaving at home. She only has about 2 ½ weeks left. Believe me, we need to bring stuff home every trip or we’ll never get it all home. (Mr. Mayhem will bring home more next weekend since he’s going down for Dad Weekend.)

She wanted to drive back so I let her. We stopped in Waco for dinner. She yacked and yacked about the boyfriend, roommate, new classes she got for next semester, and such. We made it home about 7:30 with a stop at Wendy’s for Frosties for all. Boyfriend called at 8:30. The free minutes don’t start until 9:00. Mr. Mayhem suggested, after they had talked that 30 minutes, they should hang up and call back and there would be no minutes used. Everyone else went to bed around 10:00. She got on line with Boyfriend about then. I happened to wake up around 1:00am and the light in the living room was still on. She got off the computer and went to be shortly after that, but I laid awake for an hour worrying about Mayhem #1 and the Boyfriend and how she uses her time, and anything else I thought I should worry about.

The next morning I thought Mayhem #1 had gotten up (eventually) and taken a shower, but when I looked in her room she was back in bed asleep. A little while later, I asked Mr. Mayhem to wake her up. He came back and said I needed to go see her because there was an emotional upset going on. Apparently there was some stupidity on her part that upset the boyfriend and now she was all worried and upset that he was upset. She moped and cried off and on the whole day. We went out to Chili’s for lunch and then went to the movies like we had planned. We saw "Take the Lead." It’s about ballroom dancing. What did you expect? I asked Mr. Mayhem to sit next to weepy and keep an eye on her.

We enjoyed the movie, but the emotional spew was wearing me out. That evening we went to the Good Friday service at church. Since we were dealing with the crucifixion and Lord’s Supper, crying wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. Finally, Boyfriend called and everything was smoothed out and ok. Thank goodness.

I’ll finish the weekend story later.

Just so you know. Mr. Mayhem didn't have internet at work last week so that's one reason why he couldn't post. If there were others, I don't know them.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Another update

The trip to the podiatrist was encouraging. Apparently the bone chips are stable. Nothing has shifted to where it doesn’t belong. I have to stay in the boot two more weeks and then I can wear a tennis shoe. I go back to the doctor the day before the high school trip to Orlando. When I told him about the trip he told me to take the boot with me. I guess we’ll see how it goes. If I have to wear the boot, I’ll have to get a wheelchair. That means I get to go to the front of the line for all the rides. I bet I’ll have lots of volunteers to push me around.

I’m going to pick up Mayhem #1 tomorrow for Easter. Since she doesn’t have to be out of the dorm by 5:00pm, I’ll go get her after I get Mayhem #2 home from school. Mayhem #1 said that was fine since she had to be advised and register tomorrow afternoon. She did say we had to be home before 10:00pm. I asked her if she would turn into a pumpkin and she said no, but that’s when the boyfriend gets on line. How silly of me? I should’ve known!

Mayhem #1 said she modeled for her figure drawing class today. She made her back hurt. Since she hasn’t done much drawing lately, I asked if she would have to draw us over the weekend as make up work. She said she probably could. I can see the poses now. Mr. Mayhem at the computer. Mayhem #2 with a book or Gameboy. Me sitting around with my booted foot elevated.

We’ve also talked about checking out a movie. She and I both thought of Ice Age 2. Mr. Mayhem suggested the new dancing movie. I like the way he thinks. I noticed on the way to the doctor’s office that they are building an Arthur Murray dance studio. Mr. Mayhem and I are hip and happen’. We got the dance craze before it was the popular thing to do. Or maybe we just never noticed it before we started taking lessons.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Band mom

Spent the morning at Mayhem #2's first high school UIL concert band and sight reading competition. Why is it that I'm the only parent that goes with any intention to help? After taking Mayhem #2 to school and sticking around till everyone was on the bus, I followed said bus to the competition site. I parked the car and hobbled over to her to collect her jacket. She had worn it to carry her reed water and retainer case. After she unloaded the necessary stuff it became mine.

I then hobbled over to where they were unloading the truck. There I found out that two kids had missed the bus. The assisstant band director was standing there with two horn cases in his hands. The kids had started going toward the other side of the building to go in the designated door by the warm-up room. I asked the band director what I could do. He said, "Can you hang on to these?" Yep. Now I have two trumpets and a jacket and a broken foot. I hobble after the band.

There was a stack of chairs in the hall so I took one down to sit in and one to prop my foot in. Put the trumpets on the floor and the jacket in my lap. A couple of guys walk up talking and I realize they are two of the judges for the sight reading portion. I resist the urge to talk with them since I'm in my band t-shirt and don't want to do anything inappropriate. A few minutes later a couple of girls come around the corner. One belongs to one of the trumpets and the other is a percussionist. The trumpeter takes her horn and leaves the case and a jacket. The other one changes shoes and leaves her backpack. I take the two horn cases, two jackets, and backpack and hobble to the auditorium. Oh, I still have the broken foot too.

After listening to the band that went before Mayhem #2's, I hobbled back to the practice room to see if anyone needed me to hold anything else. There I collected a purse and prayed if there was a cell phone in it it was off. I had passed off the trumpet cases to an administrator so I added the purse to the rest of my collection. The band was great on their first two pieces, but the third was a bit rough in spots. Not flawless, but overall a good performance. They headed off to the sight reading, but I don't go in the room for that. The kids don't need a bunch of parents staring at them when they are trying to figure out new music.

I found someone to hold "my" stuff and hobbled off to the restroom. This mom took pity on me and kept the purse and backpack. I hobbled outside to find the kids. They were pretty bummed about their sight reading performance. We still have to stick around for scores and to wait for the varsity band to perform. I got rid of all "my" stuff at that point and collected a different purse and sweatshirt from girls who were in the other band.

We listened to the other band, and when I came out of the auditorium one of the bus drivers was there. He said they had to park on the other side of nowhere. He gave me his cell number and asked me to call when they were ready for the buses. I wasn't sure where the band would come out of the building so I hobbled over to the truck and sat on the back bumper. I knew everyone would show up there and I would know when to call the bus driver.

They did. I did. Handed off "my" other stuff and hobbled to the car. Gave the administrator the emergency kit that I had brought in my car and waited for the bus to move so I could go home and prop up my aching foot.

Mayhem #2's band made a "1" on stage and a "2" sight reading. They wanted all ones, but they seemed pleased. I don't know how the top band did, but I wouldn't be surprised with all ones.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Sick and tired

I'm officially depressed. I went to the doctor this morning so he could help me get rid of the pain in my head from my sinuses. I thought he'd give me an anti-biotic. He gave me a nasal allergy spray and sent me next door to have my sinuses x-rayed. With all the x-rays I've had lately I think I glow in the dark. Now I wait for him to tell me if the x-ray showed I had an infection and he can give me an anti-biotic. And then he wants me to make an appointment with an allergist. The health insurance people just love me. Next they'll be telling Mr. Mayhem that I'm not worth the trouble.

I keep gaining weight and sizes mostly because I'm not as active as I was before the fall. I stay on my diet, but I've gotten to where I hate it and it doesn't seem to work anymore anyway. I'm blind as a bat.

I went to dance class to chaperone Mr. Mayhem and all those other women. I had a pretty good time laughing at everyone's expense, but I didn't get to dance. I am paying attention though so hopefully I will be able to pick it up easily once the boot comes off.

Speaking of the boot. I now have bruises on my shin from the straps that hold the boot on because I have to walk in it with out the crutches. It doesn't hurt too bad if I take small steps. It just takes me forever to get anywhere.

And Rippy died. Our best three-footed turtle. And the other two are nowhere to be seen.

Everyone is welcome to my pity party.