The last days of Pomp-ee-eye

I haven't been able to stop by much this week because Mayhem #2 has been sick. The only reason I've been able to jot something down the last two days is she stayed in her bed all night. I've been finding her wrapped up in a blanket on the couch every morning. She complained about being cold so we finally sent the extra blanket to bed with her.

Yesterday I had to take her back to the doctor. The horse pills he gave her Monday weren't making her throat any better and she was nauseous alot. Someone at church was nice enough to ask me if it could be mono. Great. I didn't even want to think about that. While we were waiting, as is the requirement when you go see the doctor, she was watching Toy Story in her two coats and the above mentioned blanket wrapped around her legs. I was looking at a magazine and came across an advertisement for a movie that would be coming out soon. I showed it to her and said, "Dad and I have been there."
"Pom-pay 2?" she said.
"Uh, no ," I said. " That's the way you spell Pompeii with two i's on the end."
"I just thought it was the Roman number 2," she said.
"Don't you remember when you were in The Music Man and the mayor use to always say Pomp-ee-eye? He said it that way because it was spelled that way!"
"Oh," she said.

When we got back to the examining room and gave the list of complaints to the nurse she asked Mayhem #2 to take off her jacket so the doctor could listen to her breathe.
"Which one?" I said.
"How many does she have on?"
"Two."
"Both."
"Ok. We'll just wrap up in the blanket til the doctor shows up."

We got all situated and I asked Mayhem #2 how she was feeling.
"Cold. I was warm till she made me take my coats off. And I have no circulation in my legs."

This last malady happens when your child gets so big that he/she has alot of leg to hang off the side of the examining table. Our table has a wooden ledge around the side that holds the little mattress on. When you sit on it, the mattress goes down, the legs go up slightly, and the wooden ledge cuts off the circulation right above the knee. I finally turned her sideways and propped her against the wall.

The blood test was normal and the mono test was negative, but she could still have it if we tested her too early. He didn't think so though. He thinks she has a flu-like bug on top of the ear infection. The ears were the only thing that had slightly improved since Monday.

I guess I better go wake her up and see how she's feeling. I'm afraid she's going to mess up my Me Day. That's the way Mom's world goes.

Sing with me now!

Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear Mr. Mayhem(aka Little A).
Happy Birthday to you!

I happen to know he wants glorp for his birthday. I think blue glorp would be good.

What shall I do today?

It's Friday so it's Me Day. It will be a bit shorter than usual because the kids get out of school early. Our little school district has a police force of two. One is usually at the high school and one at the middle school. On Tuesday the officer at the middle school had a massive heart attack and died. His service is today at the high school auditorium, so those two schools are getting out early. Mayhem #2 is pretty shook up about it. The officer's granddaughter is in one of her classes and both of the girl's parents have died in the last few years. Mayhem #2 is very sensitive to others. She's told me that she can't stand to go to the service, but I'll ask her one more time this afternoon.

Mayhem #1 got an exciting letter from her college. Because of her ACT scores, they are awarding her 10 hours of credit. Cool! That's almost a semester. She's taking the test again though because the scholarship she was shooting at wants one more point on her score.

I'm so excited! For the first time ever I'm going to answer the Thursday Three!

1. The Household Chore I Like (I'm paraphrasing.)

I love yard work. I like to mow the grass, but Mr. Mayhem is going to have to get me a new self-propelled mower so I can do it. Our front yard is a very steep hill and our old mower doesn't self propel anymore. Laundry's not too bad.

2. The Household Chore I Don't Like

I don't like doing the dishes or cleaning the bathrooms. I think I hate them because they're never ending. The dishes are an every day thing. Yuck! The bathrooms could be too with the slobs I live with. I had a friend tell me she took up sewing because it was the only thing that she could do and her family wouldn't destroy in 30 seconds. Boy do I understand that. Why is it that four people live here and make messes, but only one of them cleans up?

3. The Household Chore That's Been Put Off

Painting the rest of the house. I've painted the girls' rooms and my bedroom and bathroom (Ok Mr. Mayhem did most of our room because of my hernia. He doesn't like to paint.) The walls in the rest of the house are off white. I hate off white. Of course we've only lived here 10 years so maybe I can get around to it on a Me Day.

The Music of the Night

In honor of MLK day, the girls and I went to the movies to see Phantom of the Opera. Ok, maybe there's not a direct connection but, "He was oppressing her." Mayhem #1 loves to play the music on the piano and it got a thumbs up from her piano teacher. There was more singing than I expected. I know that sounds silly, but I didn't expect it to be just like the play, just on film. It was very good. The special effects at the opening were awesome. Mayhem #2 came home and stole Mayhem#1's Phantom piano book and started playing it on her oboe. She wants the DVD. She wants the CD. Dad called her obsessive, compulsive.

Mayhem #1 decided to do a movie review for the school on-line paper. She got on a few web sites to get some more info and found out that the phantom guy is really pretty hot. The other guy was hotter in the film. It's amazing what a different perspective you get on a movie when you see it with two teen-age girls.

I'm not concerned about them looking at these guys. They freak out if Dad has his shirt off. I have to admit I liked the Dukes of Hazzard(had a poster on my ceiling in the college dorm) and Magnum P.I. (and he had his shirt off alot.). Mayhem #1 has a CD by Superchick and we've been listening to it lately. Two of the songs are "Barlow Girls" and "Princes and Frogs." I highly recommend them for teen-age girls. This is a Christian group, but these songs don't talk alot about God, but they have the perspective down.

Uh oh. School's out. Gotta run.

Me Day

Today is my first "Me Day." I've decided to set aside a day (hopefully every week) for me. A day when I can do what I want...whether it's repotting plants, working on a scrapbook, doing some rubber stamping, having lunch with a friend. Today I'm having lunch with a friend. We're going to Razzoo's for cajun. I haven't decided if I'm going to be bad or stick with something on my diet. I promised her we wouldn't talk work. She's an at-home mom like me, but she's on the school board. I promise. No griping.

I've already messed up my day by having to go to the grocery store. The youth are baking cakes, brownies, cookies, etc. for a bake sale so I bought some sprinkles. And I have to go to the post office and mail the Christmas letter, finally. I like doing this because everyone tells me how entertaining the letter is. I'd hate to disappoint them.

Both of the girls have to stay after school for different activities so I have a little more time before I have to fix dinner. It's easy though, just a pot of chili. I may stop by Lowe's or Home Depot and check out the pots and potting soil. I have one plant that has seriously outgrown its pot. It's starting to crack.

As for "Mr. ScruffyMan," last night I sang part of a Jungle Book song to him. "Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw. When you pick the pear, try to use the claw." Don't use lips either. This thing better start laying down pretty soon or he needs longer lips.

Being a Mom

Have you ever thought about being a mom? (Ok guys, maybe you haven't, but you have one and might be married to one. Work with me here.) This thought came to me when I was doing the laundry the other day, and I also thought about Mayhem #1 going off to college. She's done the laundry before, but does she REALLY know how to do the laundry? I don't think so. I thought about when she reached first grade and we bought her a lunch box. A few days before school, I realized to my horror she had no idea how to open her thermos. We had a few practice sessions and things were ok.

As moms, we can't assume the kids know how to do things. Sometimes it's easy to forget to teach them something because I've been doing it so long it's second nature. In a way I feel like I've been a mom since I was twelve. My mom worked two jobs seven days a week. I made sure my older brother got out of bed in the morning, which usually meant I took him a Coke while he was still in bed. I fixed lunches and dinners. A few months ago when I was out of town, my girls were having major league stess over making their lunches for school. Anyway, my point is that I've done house work and cooking for what seems like all my life. I have to remind myself that they haven't. The last few years they have been so busy with school stuff that I haven't really made them do much around the house. Sometimes it's "Easier to do it myself" if I want a job done right or sometime this year.

We moms need to remember that our goal is to work ourselves out of a job. Our kids need to be able to go out in the world and take care of themselves. I'll always be their mom, but I shouldn't always have to think for them and tell them what to do.

This is a little introspective, but I won't be surprised if this kind of thinking happens a bit more between now and next fall.

He made me!

Now that my mom has gone home and the kids are back in school, Mr. Mayhem said I should blog. Blog what I have no idea.

I just finished writing the Christmas letter. If Mr. Mayhem will run my labels tonight I'll work on getting them in the mail this weekend. Last year the letter was on time, but most of my friends aren't surprised when it's late. I'll just save those Christmas cards I bought till next year.

Mayhem #1 has been complaining about a pain in her left side the past few days. I've been perplexed because if it had been on her right I could say it was her appendix. The doctor talked to us and then started poking at her. She doesn't like that. Especially when it hurts. He noticed some bumps we thought were bug bites because she had been to a friend's house that has dogs. Fleas maybe? Nope. She has shingles. Nothing to do but wait. This is weird enough. At least it wasn't her spleen or something.

I took my car to the shop on Wednesday to get the air conditioner fixed. I know that sounds silly in the middle of winter, but without the ac I have no window defroster. That makes for interesting driving on rainy, muggy days like Monday. I struck up a conversation with the friendly guy at the parts counter. For awhile I was in there too regularly with Mr. Mayhem's car. Anyway, our conversation wandered around to how blind we both are. I told him I hate going to a new restaurant because I can't read the menu in the low light "ambiance." I don't want ambiance, I want to see what I'm eating! Mr. Mayhem helped my out by bringing home a larger computer monitor. The kids are like, "That's huge!" What can I say? I'm blind and I need to do something about it....one of these days.