Going on a Playdate and I have no kids

Ok so how does one go on a playdate when they have no kids. Simple. THe other 2 moms are knitters and you don't mind being around the kids.

Let me backup. I have no car. One of my knitting friends is on vacation and the other is a SAHM. My friend on vacation put the idea of a playdate out there earlier this week. I agred to the idea. Last night I had an email talking about getting together today. I was up for it. So my friend that was on vacation picked me up on the way to our other friend's house and we all got together. The kids had a playdate while we got to knit. Life is good.

Even better is that my friend Kristy got to move on to the next round of Jukebox Hero. YAY Kristy!!!!

One of those rollercoaster weeks

It was busy, happy, and sad. All in one week. Oh and throw in a tad of some Irish temper getting fired up.

For the sad, my firends have 2 Alaskan Malamutes. One is a puppy and the other is 8 1/2 years old. Around the middle of May, Nikita, the 8 1/2 year old suddenly became extremely ill. After much testing it turned out that she had lymphoma. She started chemotherapy. Within a week of her first chemo dose she started having a problem with the leg that they gave the chemo in. At first the vets said it was an infection, then gangrene, then thy didn't know what it was. It was thought that they had it under control and getting better. It was still a mystery though as to what she had. Well Wednesday night it got real bad and she had to go back to the vets. She was too far gone and she was put down Thursday afternoon. The cancer didn't get her...it actually was in remission...the infection got her. We all miss her naturally. Aponi, the puppy, is really distraught though. Today she got a suprise...she has a new friend to play with. My friends got a new puppy to help Aponi get through the loss of Nikita. Aponi has never been alone, so hopefully this will cheer her up.

For the busy, I spent last sunday at my Mom Debbie's. While there i got to see Mom Debbie's Significant other. Paul and her have been together for over 10 years, but don't plan on getting married. My state doesn't do common law marriages. I also got to see one of my Aunt's, her boyfriend, 2 of his grandkids, 2 of my cousins, and my grandmother (i call nanny). I got to see nanny for the first time in 4 years a week ago yesterday. for Paul, my Aunt and cousins it was my first time seeing them in 4 years. For my Aunt's boyfriend and his 2 grandkids it was my first time meeting them. We all had fun and lots of laughs.

Yesterday Mom Debbie and my Aunt came down to see me. They brought me a stereo and Bureau. Yay!!! For the first time in years I have a bureau to put my clothes in. For the past few years I've had to hang everything that won't fit on shelves. THis means that cliona will get to have a new hising spot by the end of the month too as I'm getting another one for linens.

As if that didn't keep me busy enough, I has a table at a Self-Help Resource Fair Wednesday regarding the Dichroic Glass pendants I make. I also had a hand in another table as 90 - 95% of the information they had at the table is stored here at my place.

I sure hope next week is quieter.

CAB Annual Dinner

We (the Community Advisory Board) had our Annual Dinner tonight. It was a blast. We gave out our usual awards, some extra awards, had the usual entertainment, a Keynote peaker, and wonderful food. As usual there was a lot of joking around. My parents attended as my guests and they had fun too. I received an award for recognition of the work I did on Self-Injury Awareness (proclamation and fair), flowers and my therapist gave me a plant. A friend and I read the nomination we wrote up about our group leader. She didn't receive the award, but is the agency Nurse of the Year.

I'm also Secretay for another year as well as reappointed to another 3 years to the board.

I got sick of Juile last Saturday when I got home and found out that she didn't need me and lied aobut trying to reach me all week. I basically said that's it in a way. She said in a voicemail that was left after I had left for SnB (when she knew I was gone and not going to get it till too late) to go and have a good time with my friends. So...I'm going and havinga good time with my friends this weekend. Some friends of mine are picking me up this weekend from SnB and we're hanging out. Julie had to make other arrangements for the kids. Oh well. Her problem not mine. At least I had the courtesy to give her notice, unlike she gave me. Chances are I'll be with my family next weekend. Guess it's not so great to be her. Second of all, I am back in touch with "Egg Donor." I'm referring to her as "Mom Debbie" that way I can still call my step-mom "Mom" and not confuse the heck out of everyone. We'll be meeting Sunday for coffee. Don't worry everyone. I'm being careful and not getting my hopes up. I'm also not telling Mom and Dad till September. My friend Robbyn and I had fun with the security guy this week where we go Tuesdays. He was on vacation last week so he heard all about his poor fill-in's. Plus we're were our usual selves (nicknamed Trouble & Double-Trouble where we go Tuesdays). So it's been a fun week.Looking forward to Diane, Robbyn and I going to the Book Barn tomorrow afternoon. We may even go to Dagmars. Two non-knitters taking a knitter to a yarn store....this will be interesting if it happens.

Interesting week

Let's see, cooking corned beef for the first time, getting stuck at the local prison, yelling at one of the kids I watch, having a quick hear to heart with same kid in the same night, calling the police asking for a saftey check, getting stuck twice at the lab, and getting a reputation at the docs office. I'd say it was a well rounded week. I'll break it all down.

Corned beef -- I've never made it before. My mom always makes it and I love it. Since I couldn't be with my family yesterday I thought I'd make it myself. The cooking impaired one making a big dinner like that with a smoke detector that goes off at the drop of a hat. The stove, me, meat, and everything else survived thankfully. In fact it went well enough I'm planning on doing it again next year for the whole family.

Getting stuck at the prison -- This should have been a sign to me yesterday morning that the day was not going to run smoothly. The bus I take to knitting goes into the prison each time by. I have no clue why but it does. Near the entrance there's a little circle it can go around, but the drivers have been told not to. This driver decides to anyways. Also there's a pickup truck in the circle. The driver cuts it too short and the rear wheel goes up over the curb. Thanks to the watterlogged ground with snow on top of it as soon as he jumps the curb the bus got stuck in the mud. No just stuck though. That rear tire was buried up to the axle. Rather the axle was resting on the curb. Thank you driver. We can't go anywhere. A mechanic comes and confirms this, brings us pasesngers to where other busses get together hourly so we can all continue with our day and the bus got towed out.

THe kids -- also I had kid duth last night and one of them was in a bad mood and I had to be the mean babysitter instead of my usual nice and fun side. Telling the kid that they're going to bed early, all that lovely jazz. Not 30 min later I'm having to have a heart to heart with the same kid over a scene in a movie that was on TV.

Calling the police -- R and I hadn't heard from D all week and we were worried about her. She wasn't answering her phone or returning our calls. What does the crisis team tell me to do when I call? I get told to call the police and ask for them to go out and do a saftey check on her. By the way we were in the middle of a winter storm at the time. THe police were nice enough to take all the info and told me that they would but it would be a while. In the meantime D calls. So I had to get her off the phone so i can call the police back and tell them that D called and is ok.

I sure hope that this upcoming week is quiet.

Completey Worth Doing

It was tons of hard work, but isn’t that part of what the bst things in life entail. We had 54 people attend which is good for a first time event. I’m really pleased. We’re (my friends and staff have also mentioned) talking about doing it again next year. One thing I’m changing is starting working on it earlier.

See more progress on: survive helping put together an infomational fair

3 days to go

3 days until the fair that is. There's still a fair amount of stuff to do.

1.) Still have to finish making a list of things that help and don't help during a crisis
2.) Make copies of the previously mentioned items and 2 other things. One of which is a packet of information and will take a while to copy.
3.) Make a sign explaining that orange is the color recognizing Self Injury and telling people that they can take ribbons.
4.) Put pins in said ribbons. We're talking about putting pint in about 300 ribbons.
5.) Make a sign in sheet and copy it
6.) Find a container for the ribbons
7.) Finish knitting the 2nd cup cozy.
8.) Attach business cards to 2 of the door prizes
9.) Lastly remember to bring all of this to the fair along with master copies in case more copies are needed.

Oh and I have 2 meeting to attend Wednesday evening (night before the fair) and my regular 2 appointments on Tuesday. Plus I usually go to the shop on Tuesday night.

No Incentive To Buy A House ...

...at least after last week. Words can't tell you how happy I was when my landlord and lady walked back into the house yesterday evening. While they were away:1.) the furnace died. consequently "J" had to have repair men come out and fix it.2.) the furnace apparently died again, but my landlord was able to get it running again.3.) a breaker blew and no matter what we tried we couldn't get it to come back on.4.) a winter storm came through.5.) we had no salt for the sidewalk and barely enough sand for here.6.) the shovel for here was missing in action.7.) i was getting called from another property that the person that shovels dovn there hadn't shoveld and it was icing.8.) i got another call that the person finally shoveled, but only the front, not the back, and didn't put sand down.After all that I had just had it and was ready to go into hiding. Like I said, words can't tell you how happy I was to see them return.

When it comes to me and kids, I can handle the serious stuff. Give me: you need stitches (I can handle minor cuts and scrapes too). Give me you're in respriatory or cardiac arrest. I can handle you're choking too. I can take sprained ankles and broken bones. Give me anything along that kind of stuff and I'm perfectly fine. I can swing right into motion without thinking twice. Give me you don't feel good ...your sick. What am I going to do? I'm going to look at you like you have 3 heads while I shush the adrenaline and figure out what to do. I haven't raised kids. I live vicariously through others in this department. I don't know off the top of my head what to do for a 10 year that's got an upset stomach besides hold the asprin.
Last week I got 2 crash courses in parenting. Previous posts have covered 1 of them a bit. Looking back at them it's rather scketchy and behind the cut covers both of them with a little humor. I can laugh now.
So Monday night's Crash Course: What to do for a 10 year old that had an upset stomach in the middle of the night.

Scenario: You are going upstairs into your apartment on the 3rd floor. The 13 and 10 year olds that you are taking care of are asleep in the main part of the house 1 floor below you on the second floor. You told them when they went to bed that if they needed anything during the night and the downstairs lights were off you would be right upstairs. As you open the door to your apartment to go from the 2nd to the 3rd floor you hear the 10 year old "C" call you from the bathroom and say that they don't feel good. You go in and discovet that they have thrown up (thankfuly in the toilet so no cleanup). What do you do? Remember you have not had experience with this before (at least with children and thankfully the sight of emesis doesn't make you sick)
In my world I sat down with her and felt her forehead. Not warm. Good.
Asked if she wanted any Pepto {Bismol}. Refused. Me thinking ok, what next...

Asked her what mommy usually does. She's doesn't remember. Me thinking ok...

I look up and see a washcloth...Score. Wet it and put it on her forehead. She feels a little better. Good.
Ask if she wants to lay in the living room. No, she wants to go back to bed. Ok.

Get her back to bed with another washcloth (other one used to wipe mouth), told to make sure she stays on side, and given a bowl just in case.

Then leave her mom a voicemail and call a friend to make sure I did right. Think My crash course is over yet...Nope. I ended up staying up with "C" for another 4 hours with her getting up sick 2-3 times an hour. Couldn't come up with anything else to do for her. She kept refusing pepto, figured if her mom wanted her to have it then her mom can make her take it when she gets home. Finally her mom came home didn't get message till shift was over and took over. Thus ending my crash course in parenting till 2 days later and another incident which I could handle.2 days later...It's mid afternoon and "N" and "C" want to go downstairs and say hi to the downstairs tenant. "N" wants to hang out. I say ok and as for the hanging out as long as it's ok with them. Next thing know there's yelling and crying. I walk into the other room. They are yelling at each other"C" through tears and is holding her arm. What to do? Noone to call in this case and it's storming out (everything is icing).

Starters...get them to stop. I'm not even going to try and sort out who did what to who. I just tell them their mom can sort it out when she gets home. Since "C" was in the room first she gets to stay in that room to watch tv. "N" can either go upstairs in the grandparents room to watch tv or in the other room where I am and do the same. hey they both wated to watch tv and there's nothing else to do.

now that they are separated swing into evaluation mode. What hurts? Arm/Wrist. Apparently "N" twisted it. Can you move it? "C" does. Can you move your fingers? good. I check for swelling and there's none nor any bruising. BY now I'm sinlently cursing the sibling out. Go make ice pack and give it to "C" with instructions to keep it on. I'll chek on her, but if anything changes let me know. So we all survived intact, sane, and ready to go another day. Do I want to keep watching the kids??

Gotta Laugh At Yourself

And tonight was one of those nights that I did. So I ended up sitting Nicky and Carlie. THere was a little issue of the sitter calling Julie 45 min before she was supposed to be here saying she needed a ride. That was also the time Julie was getting ready for work so her going to get the sitter was not an option. It was me to the rescue. Hey I was on standby for things like this anyways.

The kids were great all night. Dodn't have to ask them to take chowers. No problems with them going to bed. Actually one went to bed early of their own accord. I shoud have known things were going too smoothly.

It was, and the hitch came about an 75 min ago when I went to come upstairs to my own place (I was watching them downstairs). I heard a little voice out of the bathroom saying that they didn't feel good. Turns out that Carlie had thrown up and their stomach was bothering them. Ok. I can deal with this, but my mind just blanked out. Give me a crisis. I can handle blood; cuts, even a deep ones. I can handle choking, cardiac and respriatory arrest. Basically Give me emergencies and I'm good. It's from my being a CNA and nursing student. Also, naturally I can handle the female end of life. Give me run of the mill things and I tend to blank out for a second. I can handle myself, but to figure out how to care for someone else in this aspect...I'm a tad bit rusty. I ended up doing a few things (try to make her laugh, cool washcloth, offer pepto, give her a bowl) and then once I got her resting again called a friend to double check that I didn't forget anything. Oh yeah left a voice mail on her mom's cell. Hey I haven't raised any kids of my own yet. I just do it vicariously through others. It made my friend laugh though, me calling about wether or not I left anything out.

Survived weekend

Well, survived the weekend. Jon and Pam left Friday night for the hotel to fly out Saturday morning to Puerto Rico. So Julie and the kids are staying here to dog sit. Well it was Julie till today when the kids returned from their aunts. I dog sat at night the past few nights. Tonight Rhonda started sitting the kids. Julie started a new job last week. All this goin on in such a short amount of time and some things were up in the air. That's why I was saying that I survived the weekend. So many things going on, things to keep straight plus a new sitter on board. Gaaaahhhh.

Plus it was my Dad's birthday yesterday so that meant no knitting group. :'( Oh well. I got knitting time in anyways.

As for the fair, still plugging away and we have money for it now.

Bruised & Swelling

Well, the swelling under my eye has gone down big time. Thankfully it never really bruised like I thought it would. I only have a slight bruise just above my lower jaw. Also the abrasion on my face has pretty much healed. My knees though....talk about bruised. THe bruising is like when I sprained my ankle. It seems like I brusied the bone in my knees. Yes there is such a thing as bruising the bone. I learned it yesterday when i had my medication evaluation. Talking about that I got one of my meds lowered! All I asked for is to shuffle the dosage around so i holy had to take meds 2 times a day. I got a dosage lowering in exchange. Even better.As for the fair, we got funding for it so my friends and i don't have to pay for things. Still putting in mega hours on it.

Grrrr

If i could have been able to turn back time yesterday I would have in a moment. The first half of my day went well. All of it until I walked in the door from knitting group around 3:30 or so.

As soon as i walked in my phone was ringing. It turned out to be a groupmate of mine and she was mad. Apparently she mistook something that another groupmate said to her wrong and was mad at us. It all goes back to what took place at group earlier in the week. She's one of the ones that asn't there. Not being in the mood to deal with it right then and needing to knw what was said to her I asked if we could talk in a little bit. She wasn't happy but said fine. I talked to the other groupmate. She called the mad one back talked to her and told her that she could call me back. I wasn't mad, but needed to take care of few things. In the long run ended up with the ticked off groupmate calling me back yelling and swearing at me. I didn't say anything, hung up, called the other one back and let her know what happened so we are on the same page. So now I'm just not taking her calls. If I could go back I would have stayed at knitting longer and not take my groupmates inital call in the first place. Also I'll have to deal with the group leader in the morning most likley since I called her to give her a heads up on the situation too. Grrrrr. What to do.

8 hours of Stained Glass

It's one of my firends birthday today. We've knows each other for practically our whole lives. We were toddlers when we met and have been in touch for all but 4 years of our lives. After those 4 years we picked up like we never left off. She loves "RENT" both the Stage and the movie version. Well I made her a piece of stained glass that says RENT. I got the lettering from a mousepad that another friend gave me. Her son painted it and he loves rent too. SHe asked me to make one for her son. I hope my firend likes this piece that I'm giving her for her birthday.

Actually went to the Movies

A rarity, but I actually went out to the movies. A few months back Don (my neighbor) and I took Carlie and Nicky (ny niece and nephew in a way, I'll explain later) to see "Monster House" while we were watching them. During the previews we saw the preview to "Night at the Museum" and afterwards were saying that we wanted to see it. Well Don was going to the theater to see it tonight and invited me along.

It was a pretty good movie. Especially if you like comedies. It's got Dick van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Robin Williams, and Ben Stiller. Who more can you ask for in a cast for a comedy movie.

Ok so why do I call Nicky and Carlie my nepher and niece in a way? Well, my landlord and lady and their family get along like family. Their oldest child I have taken to outright calling my sister and hher kids call me "auntie." I look at the landlady and landlord's grandkids as my nieces and nephew pretty much.

Good Friends

I ordered my first drop spindle today. My kit cost $10.00 and it comes with the spindle, instructions, and some fiber. I have a friend that I've known for years. She has moved out of state now, but when she lived out here she had sheep (along with other animals). Well, she has discovered that she has a stash of wool, alpaca, and silk. Even better is that she is giving it away! For free and all to one person! Guess who? Yep, Me! Yehaa. Like I said my friends rock.

My New Year's Eve

I can say it was one busy New Year's Eve here. I've made reference to my Landlady's store before. Well it was packed on New Year's Eve, and then some. It typically isn't open on Sunday's. The store was even in the paper.

What happened was my lovely city did First Night festival. You could by a button and it would get you in to all these different things. Some of the things were: Magic shows, Hypnotist shows, Horse Drawn Carriage Rides, Trolley rides, and a bunch of other stuff. The city also did 2 fireworks shows. My landlady also offered 20% off on the Paint-Your-Own Pottery for those who had the buttons. We had nearly 40 families stay and paint. We're talking 3 and 4 people each when we're saying families. That doesn't count the people that just came in to look.

The local paper took and have some great pics from New Year's Eve. They have 2 on their site that involve the store. One pic shows some people in the store painitng. Another one shows a pair of horses pulling a wagon and you can see the window to the store off to the left. There are even a couple articles which mention the store too. There's one that ran the day after and another that ran the day before. The paper even ran an article about the lovely $100.00 a head gala at the Wauregan. Long story short: the Wauregan used to be a hotel; apparently Abraham Lincoln spent a night there; they removated it into apartments.