DS & Surgery

Tomorrow’s the big day! Our son is going in to have his sinuses drained. Specifically his sphenoid sinuses. He’s advanced to chronic sinus disease (triggered by allergies) and this is the first surgery he’s going to remember having. He’s worried, but resigned. It’s a day surgery, so we hope to have him home again tomorrow night.

Hopefully this will help with his migraine issues as well, since the pressure build up seems to trigger them on a near-constant basis. Thank goodness his neurologist gave us a new prescription before Christmas break that finally gave him some relief and returned his personality and energy levels.

We’ll be contacting people and updating information once we get home tomorrow.

What A Day!

wedding1Seventeen years ago today, my husband and I tied the knot on an overcast morning beside the Chester River in Chestertown, Maryland where we went to college. This was one week before he graduated, four months before his 21st birthday. We had a surprisingly large turnout of all our friends and family considering it wasn’t just Mother’s Day Weekend, but Mother’s Day itself.

We’ve joked through the years that we gave our mom’s gifts that would keep on giving. For better or for worse, they each got the son or daughter they’d never had. Over the years, they’ve also received a matched set of grandchildren: one girl, one boy. I hope they both recognize the love we have for them even if we’re not always the best at showing or telling them. We’ve only shared the day one other time in 1998 before today. (Calendar dates and weekdays coincide every 5, 6 or 11 years depending on leap years or not.)

momsI was looking through the photo albums of our wedding pictures this morning. I hadn’t remembered the edges of the pages had melted and fused together in many places ten years ago in a house fire. I should do something about that. However, what annoyed me was the realization that the photographer sucked. We have several pictures of this one guy I don’t recognize any more now than when we got the pictures back. We have numerous pictures with the wedding party, pictures of the reception, pictures of us with my parents, pictures of us with his dad’s family and then his mom’s family.

So, what’s the problem? It was FREAKING Mother’s Day. We don’t have any pictures of us with JUST our mothers (or even with just all four of our parents for that matter). I had to crop a picture from the receiving line to get THIS one of both of our mothers together. Sheesh. (Oh, and that’s my youngest brother-in-law there in front of his mom. He’s taller than I am now!)

Happy Mother’s Day to Lynnda and Yvonne and Happy Anniversary, dear!

What’s the best gift you ever received or gave on Mother’s Day?

Happy B-day to Me!

No big plans today, no big post like last year. I haven’t even decided where we’re going out for dinner tonight. In the last year, I haven’t noticed “life began at 40”, but hey, it’s still early, right?

Two best gifts so far? An actual plan to make DS feel better and DD comes home from camp today!

Another of the Romance Divas (or is that two people?) shares my birthday as well. Two of my friends from Cub Scouts do as well. Definitely a good day in many ways. And hey, Sebastian Bach and Jamie Hewlett were born the exact same day, that’s still kinda cool.

A case of the megrims

George Cruikshank's "The Headache" depicting the torments inflicted by the demons of colic, depression, jealousy, and indigestion.
George Cruikshank's "The Headache" depicting the torments inflicted by the demons of colic, depression, jealousy, and indigestion.
To have a case of the megrims was to have a headache. Often from the descriptions in diaries, these may have been migraine attacks or at the very least serious tension headaches. Darkened rooms, an absence of sound, relief brought on by a cool, damp cloth on one’s forehead or the back of one’s neck — these symptoms are all too familiar by today’s standards and even in my own house lately.

I wish I was writing about this in only a Regency Era research mode. However, for the past month, our son has been knocked down by a string of recurring headaches. Using a 0-5 scale, where 0 is none, and 4 is nauseous and 5 is throwing up, we’re talking he’s had a 4 or 5 level headache on 19 days of the last 30. This also happened last spring as well, so we suspect there might be some seasonal allergy involved making him more susceptible beyond just what is brought on by bright sunlight, loud noise and skipping meals. The boy’s head will hurt to the point where he’ll be sick from the pain and he gets horrible dark circles under his eyes.

It was interesting to see the change in the weather (from always clear and sunny SoCal to overcast and raining on Sunday) also brought a change to how he felt. On Friday evening, it was like someone flipped a switch in his personality. I hadn’t realized just how suppressed his usual sunny disposition had been for the past three weeks. He was suddenly smiling and silly and himself again. Unfortunately, as the weather system passed, so did the brief respite as the switch flipped back and he’s become a zombie again.

He has a CAT scan scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. We’re just hoping for an explanation of why he’s affected this way and a way to minimize the restrictions this places on his activities, like going to school.

Wrapping Up

arrow of light
The boy's Arrow of Honor wrapped with his Rank & Activity stripes.

I’m not getting much focus done on writing this week beyond the bare minimums. It’s been hard enough staying on top of what I wanted to do in the writing-wise let alone come up with additional pithy thoughts on the latest workbook exercise, but maybe Wednesday after all the whirlwind of activity is done with this Cub Scout filled week.

Wednesday night we sanded and stained the plaques to hold each boy’s Arrow of Honor and started wrapping the shafts of the arrows with embroidery floss to commemorate which major activities they’ve done as a scout so far. I finished wrapping DS’s career arrow yesterday and realized that I’d done it wrong but if I’d put a white divider between every color stripe it wouldn’t have fit on the shaft. It just barely did as it was. Taking his old uniform apart and putting all the old patches and pins on the plaque will be time consuming, but it’s not unheard of for them to sit in a state of “in progress” on the dining room table for several months after this point.

This morning, I ran back down to council to pick up the Quality Unit patches that finally came in (I don’t know why they don’t order a similar number to the amount they sold the previous year, but they’re perennially short). Sunday we’ve got the dinner and cake bake. I still haven’t done anything about that yet. I think we’re going to make a teepee cake, we’ll see how that goes since I’ve never played with fondant before. And Tuesday is the big “graduation to boy scouts” ceremony. How sad is it I had to send email to the new scoutmaster for DS’s new troop to tell him he’d misplaced one of our boys into another group?

I’m looking forward to the 11th as a quieter day. My mom leaves on the 14th, but life should settle back to a normal level of chaos next Wednesday. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

ETA: I’ve noticed a lot of people have found this post looking for how to do their own arrows. I went looking too and there isn’t really much out there, is there? Ok. So a quick run down of how we did ours… Starting about a half inch from the flight (the feathers), the pattern can be worked in this manner:

3/4″

Orange for Tigers

1/4″

White divider

3/4″

Dark Blue for Bobcat (or whenever they earned it, it’s often first now)

1/4″

White divider

3/4″

World Conservation (Purple, 1/8″ yellow in the middle, Purple) or whenever they earned it

1/4″

White divider

3/4″

Red for Wolf

1/8″

White divider

1/4″

Gold or Yellow for 1st Arrow Point earned

3/8″

(1/8″ White divider and 1/4″ Silver for each silver arrow point earned as a Wolf Cub)

1/8″

White divider

3/4″

Aquamarine for Bear

1/8″

White divider

1/4″

Gold or Yellow for 1st Arrow Point earned

3/8″

(1/8″ White divider and 1/4″ Silver for each silver arrow point earned as a Bear Cub)

1/8″

White divider

3/4″

Tan for Religious Award or whenever they earned it

1/8″

White divider

3/8″

1/4″ Slate Grey followed by 1/8″ white divider afterward for first three Webelos Activities to earn Webelos Badge

3/4″

Navy for Webelos Badge

1/4″

Slate Grey followed by 1/8″ white divider afterward for next four Webelos Activities to earn Compass Patch

3/4″

Compass Patch (Light Blue, 1/8″ red in the middle, Light Blue)

3/8″

1/4″ Slate Grey followed by 1/8″ white divider afterward for each additional Webelos Activities earned (up to 13)

3/4″

Yellow for Arrow of Light

As for HOW we wrapped them. You start with a dab of tacky craft glue (Aleene’s works well) on the shaft, lay the embroidery floss in it and turn the arrow so the floss covers the shaft. Cut at the desired length and glue that end down. Your fingers will get a bit sticky. After a while, you get to know how many turns it’ll take to reach the 1/4″ mark. Other people have done theirs with paint or colored tape, use what suits you and you think looks good.

So for my son’s arrow, we had 17″ between the flight and the arrowhead. Even omitting the arrow points for space and the religious award he didn’t earn, it should have taken 14.5″ for everything as described as he earned all 20 Webelos Activitities. As you can see in the picture at the top, we also forgot to do the white dividers between everything but the Webelos activities, and it just barely fit. The wrappings on his came out to 15.5″ Measurements likely won’t be exact, expecially if you’re sitting around talking while doing these.

Anyway, I hope that helps someone out there!

Hectic Week

character counts cub scout logoA quick break from my workbook ruminations today… my mom flew in yesterday for a visit to celebrate her birthday (tomorrow) and DS’s Arrow of Light and bridging to Boy Scouts ceremony (next week).We had our last patrol meeting last night and the boy was headache free for a change!

Everything that could have been left to the last minute has been, but this is par for the course. The parents are now scrambling to pull everything together at the last minute. This means a multi-night party to finish up sanding/staining/varnishing the plaques to display their arrows, wrapping their arrows with embroidery floss to show their accomplishments and then taking all the stuff off their old uniforms to put on the plaques for display. They’re pretty impressive looking when they’re done, it’s just getting to that point. Added to this bit of fun, the annual Blue & Gold Dinner (Scouting’s Birthday party) is also this weekend and we have to bake a cake for the auction. Theme: Cowboys & Indians. Ideas: (zilch).

This week also marks my last week with the Pack. I’ve been committee chair for the past two years as well as doing a bunch of other things. I’m still not quite used to the idea that I will have some free time to myself again and won’t have to be doing certain tasks on a regular basis anymore. I suspect I have a good month or so of retraining people to not email me with questions and requests to pass on information though. I’ll definitely miss working with the boys and watching them learn and grow so quickly. We’re not done with Scouts, but the Boy Scout troops work in a completely different fashion. There’s more “stand back and let them learn from their mistakes as they learn to plan and execute things” instead of more active guidance.

So what am I going to do with my free time after next week? I’ve submitted my application for a 3-month writing mentor program! I promised myself that I would do it this year when I felt I could devote more time to it with fewer outside obligations. (Who was I kidding, right?) Seriously though, I’m really looking forward to it and breaking out of the rut I feel I’ve fallen into with my writing.

Thursday Thirteen: New Wheels

 

13 Reasons DH Needs A New Car

 

1. The fabric on the ceiling is coming loose and attacking anyone in the back seat.

2. The rear passenger side door won’t open. This means he can’t easily drop the kids off at school.

3. It’s older than DD. (Ok. It’s always been older than her, but she just started middle school. C’mon!)

4. Owning his own company now, he needs a better status symbol than a ’97 Saturn sedan, yes?

5. The insurance will be cheaper on a new car now that he’s over 35 and married.

6. DS wants him to get a Lamborghini or at least some kind of fancy sports car.

7. It’s paid off!

8. My van’s also paid off! It’s his turn, he’s actually past due.

9. The A/C’s dead… ok not such a big deal that we’re no longer in Texas, but still.

10. It doesn’t have a CD/MP3 player just a cassette player.

11. The second engine we put in it is still running, but doesn’t have the pick up and it always sounds like it’s in performance mode even if it’s not.

12. My keyfob doesn’t unlock it and I’m tired of setting off the car alarm trying to get into it if I have to drive it anywhere.

13. The electrical system is going. The other morning he couldn’t buy coffee because the power windows wouldn’t go down and he didn’t have time to walk into Starbucks instead of driving through the little Cappucino Cottage on the way to work.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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1 Juliadamus 2 Nicholas 3 On a Limb with Claudia
4 Alice Audrey 5 YummY! 6 SJ Reidhead
7 Qtpies7 8 marcia@joyismygoal 9 Paige Tyler
11 Pamela Sweet 12 Alice

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Countdown: 1!

One day until the blessed silence returns.
One day until blessed silence returns.
Tomorrow’s the big day. DD’s first day of middle school and DS’s first day as a BMOC — yah, he’s a fifth grader. Today’s kinda crazy rushing around trying to get everything finished and together for tomorrow. I really didn’t like the alarm going off at 6am in preparation for this momentous occasion. We’re also expecting a phone call from the boy’s teacher to find out who’s class he’ll be in this year.

The past week has thrown my writing schedule for a loop, but tomorrow should see a good 5 hours of silence. It’ll probably be TOO quiet. I won’t know what to do with myself again. I’ve been rethinking things since showing the first several pages to the DH the other night. Don’tcha hate it when they’re right? It’s even worse when it’s something you knew all along too. This means I have a week and a half to write this story and get it to Bria to trade. Yikes! I mean, I’ll make it!

In the meantime, I’m also contemplating more time for learning and studying for myself. No, I still haven’t caved to sign up for that Conversational Spanish class. But with the copious amounts of free time in my future, I will be adding more study time back into my weekly goals. I just need to figure out some practical methods instead of just cramming in more theory.

I’ve also been listening to random lectures from the 2007 RWA Nationals disc that Jodi sent me from this years. Thanks again, Jodi! It’s interesting to hear some of the people I’ve read speak and wonder how they can sound so good on the page, but so stilted and boring at the podium.

The one that caught my attention the most so far was Todd A. Stone’s Novelist’s Boot Camp. The idea of “Who is the Opposition?” really drove home a problem I keep running up against. Maybe I’m just too nice to my characters. I mean really, I made them to go together like a matched salt-n-pepper set, so umm… what do you mean I have to keep them from getting together, but not let them get too far apart? *sigh* I know it can be done, it’s just figuring out the puzzle of it and applying the pressure and shaping the conflict in meaningful ways.

Back to the drawing board…

Didn’t Get Very Far…

Shelves of parts at the Taylor Guitar FactorySo, we didn’t escape far. We pretended to be tourists and drove down to El Cajon on Friday afternoon to do the Taylor Guitar factory tour with the kids. DH had been a couple years ago, but we thought it might be interesting for the kids since they’re becoming more musically aware and we’re like them to get back into playing the instruments that were bought for them.

Next time, I want to go in January. The weather shifted here this weekend from cool and sunny to sunny and very warm. It was in the low 90s here today. The factory is located much farther inland and the highway rises to 821 ft above sea level before slipping down into the valley there at Santee and El Cajon. Add to that the fact that much of the factory has fans blowing water vapor into the air as they acclimate the wood to a nice average humidity level. San Diego is normally arid.

The kids did well, but the boy got bored and a bit cranky when we refused to buy the $2500 acoustic guitar off the shelf for him in the gift shop. They ended up with hats and DH got a shirt, a pair of mugs and a set of wood cut Christmas tree ornaments. I got a cup of ice as we were heading out of town and melted most of it between my swollen hands by the time we got home. I don’t handle heat and humidity well at all.

Today, I sent them off to the Build-a-Bear Workshop and other points south. They came home with a cute little Rock-n-Roll Groundhog and a Rock-n-Roll Pterodactyl, a red iPod Shuffle to replace the one that went through the washer and now refuses to take a charge, several comics and books from the Comic shop on the way home and junk food from McDonald’s.

In exchange, I got some time to recharge and write. I almost reached the 1600 word mark, nearly doubling the other day’s progress. I’m still feeling unfocused and unsure, but every bit I write, the going becomes easier. I think the characters have some surprises still in store for me, but at least they’re not holding back on me where it counts.

This evening we’re headed back downtown (it’s only gas, right? :P) to hear David Wilcox play at one of the local acoustic music series. He’s out promoting his 14th album, Airstream. We haven’t seen him live since Austin and before that at the Kerrville Folk Festival.

Tonight’s show will be held in a church, so the acoustics are amazing and it often leads to jokes about the appropriateness of certain songs. The kids do well there. There was a bit of a worry one night when we took them and their game boys along and someone was complaining about a high pitched whine. They encourage minors to attend the shows and were quick to eliminate the gameboys as the source. Turns out it was an older gentleman’s hearing aid that was feeding back. Phew.

Happy Labor Day

Steel Worker in Bethlehem, PAOn Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, the Central Labor Union held their first demonstration and picnic. The third year, the date was set for the first Monday in September. As labor organizations spread, so did the idea. By 1894, 23 states had adopted holidays to celebrate the working man and Congress passed an act declaring the first Monday in September a national, legal holiday.

We celebrated yesterday, since that meant we could have friends over for a cookout, board games & videogames, music jam and general hanging out as long as people wanted to stay and not worry about having the kids get to bed at a decent hour for school the next day.

We also tossed in a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake to celebrate DH’s birthday a bit early since he’s going to be out of town on the big day, again. It was unusally hot here during the day, but the evening cooled off enough for a few pleasant games on the patio until a humongous spider decided to crash the party.

I didn’t get to sit down and write anything until 11 pm, and I wrote a very short journal entry because I couldn’t keep my mind focused long enough to get anything down. The important thing was I still did it. I’m getting more comfortable telling people that I’m writing. Not running out and shouting it from the rooftops, but I’m finding it coming up naturally in conversation more and more.

If you haven’t celebrated yet this weekend, enjoy! If you’re stuck working this weekend, thanks for all you do!