They All Look Alike to Me ...

*** don't jump on me for the title of this post, it's said completely tongue in cheek.

Melanie has been having an awesome time at her school.  All of the kids have various "issues" of special need, be it non-English speaking, some type of developmental disorder, speech (Melanie), whatever.    The preschool is technically for "4 year olds who are at risk of not succeeding in kindergarten".  I saw a little boy with Downs the other day in the carpool line.  While part of me is a little sad that Melanie is considered "special needs" (well, duh!  She is!  And it's not really a surprise to me!) the other part of me is thinking, well, maybe this will give her an opportunity to be a leader, or a comforter, or a nurturer for those kids in her class who may have more serious problems than she does.

One of her little classmates is a little girl who was adopted from China.  I'll call her Kim.  Melanie and Kim are exactly the same height, have the same black hair (of course ... duh part II) and are of course, both cute as buttons.  (Kim wears glasses!)  But for some reason, the ladies in the pickup like ALWAYS get the two mixed up.  Yesterday the lady had Melanie in Kim's mom's car, IN THE CARSEAT, before Kim's mom said, 'Um, that's not my kid!'  I was gesturing out the window that they were putting Melanie in the wrong car ... and this is not the first time it's happened.  One time they tried to put Kim in MY car.   Yesterday, our two cars were right next to each other, so we moms took the opportunity to introduce ourselves, and have a little laugh about it.  But it's really kinda sad!!  Do they ever put the little white kids in the wrong car?  Oh well ... what are you gonna do? 

I'm almost (ALMOST) tired of living like a vagabond.  I'm almost tired of not being able to find anything, of having all the stuff in my pantry strewn around the dining room.  I'm almost tired of the dust in the entire house, of sawdust in my coffeemaker.  Of having to rinse the dishes in the powder room, or cart them downstairs in a bucket to rinse them in the laundry room.  Of having to squeeze myself between the dining room chairs and the sideboard to make lunches.  Of permanently having dusty goo between my toes when I walk around barefoot.  Of having people in my house (even if they are really, really nice people).  Okay, complaining is over.  Granite folks come today to make the templates.

Cabinet Meeting

Thought you might like to see the cabinets in their raw, uninstalled form.  They really are nice, but man is it a mess.  George spent Saturday installing the hood for the range (which closely resembles a UFO) and re-routing the plumbing.  Previously, the sink was not centered under the window (strange!) so we fixed that.  No asymmetry in our house, no sir!  The bad news is that, now we have no sink until October 4 (when the countertops will be installed).  We've been toting the dishes down to use the laundry sink in the basement.  But last night we went to BJ's and invested in a whole bunch of plastic plates and utensils.  Sorry, environment! 

The cabinet guy (David) ... (the floor guy is David also, as is, of course, my David) ... was here all day Friday assembling the jigsaw puzzle, as it were.  He did get the pantry installed, and part of the built in hutch.  The island is in place, though not bolted down.  The appliances will all be delivered next Friday.

I also picked out the hardware for the cabinets (drawer pulls and knobs).  I would post a picture, but the digital camera died.  We're going to give it a proper funeral and get a new one before we go to Disney.

Over and out.

 

All is Klaar, Herr Kommissar

(Don't know how I come up with these titles ... anyway!)

Melanie came through surgery just great.  She was of course uncomfortable when she first woke up, but the nurse gave her a big shot of something in her IV and off to dreamland she went.  We were told both by the hospital and the doctor's office that we would be spending the night, but they kicked us out at 5:00.  Ahhh. 

She was still a little drunk when we got home, but felt good enough to want to walk around the house.  Make that RUN around the house.  We had to sit on her to keep her quiet and still (no easy feat!)  She has a little blood coming out of her nose, and is drooling up a storm.  Other than that ... she ate ice cream, scrambled egg and yogurt.  No problem.  Last night I gave her a little hydrocodone and she slept all night (in my bed).

The cabinets were delivered ... the installer comes this morning.  It had been so long since I ordered them, I forgot what I ordered.  They're really really pretty!

 

 

And furthermore more ...

Good grief will it ever end?  Quentin called last night from the high school retreat (near Asheville, 2 hours away from here) reporting that he lost his glasses swimming in a lake.  He is as blind as a bat without them.  Don't know how he's coping without them; I added an errand to Lenscrafters to my already packed schedule, but they need some kind of "pupil distance" measurement, so I suppose after I pick him up tomorrow we'll be going back to Lenscrafters.  Where you get your glasses in an hour.  If you lived in Louisiana in the 70's and 80's you'll remember the TV ads with a very Cajun lady talking about Lenscrafters, "I came all the way from Opelousas to get my glasses in an OW-AH and I got my glasses in an OW-AH.  Hilarious ...

My body is in a state of complete exhaustion and muscle aches.  Dr. Matthews says all is well to go ahead with Thursday's appointment.  We'll have to take it easy at Disney, which means she and I will go back to the room every day to take a nap.  Darn!  <---note sarcasm.

And furthermore ...

I completely miscalculated my dates, and now they are even crazier.  We leave for Disney NEXT THURSDAY the 28th of September.  Double AUGH.  That means Melanie will be going to Disney 1 week post-surgery!  I have a pre-op meeting with Dr. Matthews on Tuesday, and I'm going to discuss postponing the surgery if he feels that would be in her best interest.  She has come down with a cold in the past day or two (just runny nose and cough, no fever) so I'm wondering if he wouldn't postpone it for that reason anyway.

So I need to get ahold of the floor guy to see if they can refinish the floors next week ... oh and find Boudreaux a hotel. 

David painted the kitchen over the weekend, and it's a very pretty color.  I think I'm going to like it.

**** AND I FORGOT TO TAKE MELANIE TO SPEECH!!!!  What a ditz.

...add a car accident and stir...

Just as I was getting over the nausea created when I contemplated the next few weeks ... I decided to take a "day off" of the stress and go shopping with Mom and Lisa.  A nice girls' day out ... very "Scarlett O'Hara" of me .. I'll think about it tomorrow.  After all tomorrow is another day.

I was looking for a parking place at the very chi-chi mall (where they check your bank balance before they let you in the door .. hey, we just wanted to look!) when a girl in a little white Maxima came around the corner and sideswiped my van.  Not much damage, really, but it took 2 hours for the Charlotte police to come to a report, and my stress came back with a vengeance and increased exponentially.  Ugh ... just what I needed. 

The door and window go in tomorrow ... look at the bright side.  One day at a time.  This too shall pass ... and all those other cliches about having a crummy week.

Oh, for the love of ...

How in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks do we get ourselves into these things?  In what strange order have the planets aligned themselves so that everything difficult that can happen to a human being happens all at one time??  Where can I get a permanent Valium IV installed into my arm for the next month or so?

1.  Kitchen remodel is nearing its zenith.  Cabinet installation will happen Friday the 22nd.  Door and window will be installed this Monday or Tuesday.

2.  *Surprise!* Dr. Matthews has scheduled Melanie's surgery for Thursday the 21st!  Overnight stay ... oh, and our social worker's 2 year post placement visit is scheduled for the evening of the 21st.  Guess she'll have to come see us in the hospital.  Soft diet for 4 weeks.  *Note to self:  get 6 photos of Melanie for SW.

3.  The granite company will come on Wed. the 27th to do the template for our countertops.  They will install on Wed. the 4th of October. 

4.  We leave for Disney Thursday the 5th of October.  Maintaining the soft diet for Melanie on the trip.

5.  While we are gone, the floor company will refinish all the wood floors on the main floor.  Which means that ...

6.  We have to have all the furniture out of the main level before we leave for Disney.  Which means that ...

7.  Boudreaux will have to go to doggie camp and

8.  We'll have to get a moving company to take all our furniture and store it for the weekend.  It's like we're moving again!!!  Then we'll have to move back in after driving home from Orlando.  WTF????  (Okay, this is a family blog ... the "f" stands for "frick".  Right.)

<SCREAM!>

Snorting Cocaine at Four

Yeah, thought that would get your attention.  Seriously .. Melanie's endoscopy went well.  They use a form of medical cocaine (get your head out of the gutter!) to numb her nose before the procedure .. don't think I wasn't tempted to ask for some for myself.  Ha ha.  While they had the "cocaine" in her nose (in the form of a very long q-tip) they (the speech pathologist, nurse and Dr.) tried to play with her, Dr. Matthews tying a blown-up rubber glove to her shoe.  She wasn't buying it for one minute.  Then they had a plastic alligator with push-button teeth that would snap your finger at random points.  No go there, either.  Finally after 10 minutes of number, up went the scope; a very tiny, spaghetti width tube with a light on the end (and a camera, of course).  I held her on my lap and watched the fun on the screen, and Melanie sat quietly and serenely while all this was going on.  NOT NOT NOT.  She was pretty upset at having a long tube shoved up her nose, numbed or not.  However, we all got her to say "TAKE IT OUT!" so Dr. Matthews could observe her palate in motion.  No closure whatsoever.  Which, of course, means the "S" word.  He will do some type of surgery on her where he'll take tissue from (where?) somewhere and lengthen her palate.  Don't know when yet ... he's going to check his schedule.  Sorry I didn't document everything with pictures, but I was busy holding her hands and head still.

It was really kinda cool to see her throat anatomy ... there was a small little tulip-shaped thing that opened and shut, which Dr. M. told me was her epiglottis.  If we had kept going, we would have seen her larynx.  But he had seen enough, and he stopped after that.  Then it was off to eat breakfast.  The paperwork had said "no food 12 hours before" but Dr. Matthews said, oh heck, you could have fed her breakfast!  Sheesh.  I thought for sure she would crash, and eventually I think I would have paid her $500 to take a nap, as I was fighting the rack monster in a big way.  Getting up at 5 a.m. will do that to you.  Nothing doing ... except later in the afternoon, on the way to Quentin's orthodontist, what does she do?  Right ... fast asleep in the car.  Who was Murphy anyway, and who came up with his law?

Another Calgon Day, and it's only 10 AM!

No, I'm not homicidal or maniacal or psychotical or anything like that.  Just found this on another blog and loved it ... I am on the edge though.  I had a major anxiety attack last night, mostly because this is the week Melanie has her endoscopy, David will be out of town that day, and my mom is coming, the next day and the kitchen is nearing completion and there are still some things I need to do, and there isn't time to do them.  Today I have to work as a lunch lady at the kids school, and by the time that's over I'll have to get Melanie and that leaves no more time for granite shopping or tile shopping.  I have to leave three kids at home alone in the morning while I drive Melanie to school, and today I got the "Mom, they're fighting and hitting each other with their toothbrushes!" call.  Sheesh.  David was in the 3rd grade and his mom had to leave to teach school an hour before he left to catch the school bus.  Why can't my kids at 14, 9 & 8 do the same thing???  Argh.  At least the weather is beautiful .. not humid, rather cool (low 80's) and very pleasant.  I have to find something good in all this! 

The Man From Brazil

The floor guys came yesterday ... and the floor she is fixed!  I heard them speaking Portuguese all day, as they are from Brazil.  Apparently, 80% of the hardwood floor work done in the area is done by Brazilians ... it seems to be their *thing*.  They did an excellent job ... they will come to sand and refinish the floor on Tuesday.  Unfortunately that is the same day (or fortunately?) that Melanie has her nasal endoscopy ... they are putting a camera down to look at how her palate works (or doesn't work as the case may be) and I anticipate after this we will talk about surgery no. 2.  Jamie (her speech therapist) thinks there is a fistula (opening) in the roof of her mouth, which may account for her hypernasality.  We seem to have reached a plateau in her speech improvement, so surgery may be the next step.  Luckily it won't be as extensive as when her palate was repaired back in Feb. of 2005. 

Melanie had her first full week of school last week, and seems very happy to go.  Other than complaining (loudly) at my waking her up at 6:30 (who wouldn't?) she goes happily out of the car and is happy when I pick her up at 1:45.  I think she is a tough kid and is enjoying the structure.  On the 2nd day of school, though, I woke her up and she was burning up with fever!  Strange ... especially since it went away and she was right as rain the next day.  Go figure.

The George team is due to return this coming week (she said, hopefully) to install the new sliding door and to swap out the garden window with the new casement window.  I need to get on the stick and go get my granite slab picked out and paid for, because the next week is supposed to be cabinet week!  Woo hoo.  I am *beginning* to be tired of living without a kitchen ... not desperate yet, but getting there.  I think there will be a convergence of events that will have me hopping to and fro.

We've booked a trip to Disney over the kids' fall break.  Although Colin and Melanie don't have the same fall break .. so we'll just make it a long weekend.  We haven't been there since Christian was a baby, so I think it will be a lot of fun.  Maybe there won't be hoardes of people there in October (she said, hopefully).

Mom is coming for a visit next week ... which will be nice.  Haven't seen her in a while.  She'll get my rear in gear and get organized while I wait forthe kitchen to be finished.