Sheduling Conflict!!!

JOHN GREEN IS GOING TO BE AT THE LIBRARY TONIGHT AND I CAN'T GO SEE HIM!!!

http://www.sparksflyup.com/weblog.php

WAhhhhhh!

He'll be at the Columbus Main Library at 6:30pm tonight for anyone who is interested and available. Take pictures and tell me all about how delightfully geeky is is, please.

Another Reason I Love Todd

He is succinct. He can say in just a few words what takes me hundreds. Here is a perfect example.

http://unchangingscepter.blogspot.com/2009/10/heat.html

I whine for huge, long posts about how hard things are, and he sums it up with a scripture and one-liner.

Amazing.

The Plague

Remember when a few days ago I rolled out my cleaning goals for Monday and said something silly like "unless we get H1N1..."?

Well, that's what I get, I guess. Our elementary school has had absence rates of 35% and 39% most recently. The "good" news is that they're not all H1N1. Some of them are whooping cough. So far it's just Nathaniel and Todd with the plague. Yesterday, Nathaniel had an appointment with his pediatric GI for an annual liver check up. She lives in our town and had heard about how badly our particular school had been hit. Her response to Nathaniel being so sick was, "He has H1N1. We're not testing. Go home. Be sick. Get better. Call me if he turns yellow. Here's a mask."

(Incidentally, the appointment was at the children's hospital which was so packed that we had to park in the staff parking lot because the parking garages were full to bursting. We walked past the ER, which was a room full of people wearing masks. It's not just our school. Columbus is hit HARD right now with this.)

Happily, my goofy kids, even while sick, do not lose their sense of humor. Here is what Nathaniel did with his dinner last night.

This picture is so pitiful to me. Poor kid.

Of course, three of the six people in our house are in the high risk category for H1N1. Two of them have it. I'm the high risk hold out right now, but judging by the response from the specialists of the other two, I don't particularly expect the doctors to care all that much if I do come down with it. It seems that the scary things being said by the CDC and the response of the doctors are rather at odds with each other. That being said, I appreciate the very level headed reactions by all of our doctors.

(According to the CDC, neither Todd nor I should have been within six feet of Nathaniel who should have been quarantined in his room away from everyone else and wearing a mask basically before he started showing symptoms. Yeah. I get the idea behind the recommendations, but I'm not about to let my son be sick without touching him. Sorry.)

Oh, did I mention that it was spread all over the school BEFORE the vaccine arrived in Columbus? And that the vaccine isn't even available yet to the general public?

I don't think the good people of Worthington will be needing that so much now, thanks.

Cleaning. Again.

Okay, remember last year when I decided to clean my house? No? Yeah. It's kind of vague for me, too.

I just realized that I'm having a baby in not very many weeks. It is time to tackle all of the big scary projects that I didn't get to last time.

Like burning all of the old financial records. I could shred them, but I'm pretty sure I would burn out several motors with all the papers that I need to shred. Besides. Fires are fun, right?

Starting on Monday (because why start today what you can put off until after the weekend?) I will be thoroughly cleaning one room and doing one project per day.

This is assuming that I don't have any gall bladder attacks, or end up in the hospital, or have any children come down with H1N1 or whooping cough. All of which are at this point statistical likelihoods.

At least life is never dull.

Plan for Monday:

-clean a bathroom. Any bathroom will do. Hands and knees type of cleaning, not the swish a brush and swipe a clorox wipe type I've been doing since I got pregnant.

THEN:

-show that wrapping paper who is boss. I will make you fit back into that container, wrapping paper!!! I will!

Suggestions?

Last year our school district cancelled the advanced program for reading and writing in the elementary schools. Stupid budget cuts.

Anyway, our kids read a lot all the time, so I'm not really worried about that. But last night Benjamin asked Todd if we could "homeschool" him for Language Arts EPP.

I'm looking for book suggestions for an advanced 9 year old reader with some tie-ins. (Visits, projects, etc.)

Right now he's reading "Chasing Vermeer" by Blue Balliett, so I'm thinking about a project about the artist, or maybe even a trip to a museum that has some Vermeer. Not that any spring immediately to mind, but I'm sure I can find one. Maybe even a little jaunt up to Chicago to get a feel for the University area. I don't know yet for sure.

Any thoughts, advice, suggestions?

Marriage

One day after school last week, Nathaniel and I were walking through the school hallways after retrieving a forgotten paper. I stopped to chat with a fellow Mom, when one of her Daisy Scouts said, "Hey, are you Nathaniel's mom? Cuz, I'm gonna marry him."

All I could do was blink a few times, and say, "Um. What's your name?"

Nathaniel rolled his eyes at her.

The thing is, this is the second time I've been approached like this. The first time was a girl from Caleb's 3 yr old preschool class. Same exact conversation. Although, we were members of the same pool this summer, and they didn't even look at each other. So, I guess they're over it.

Is this preparing me for some pushy daughters-in-law somewhere down the road?

I think I'll move far away. I think I could be a decent mother in law from afar.

very clever

On Friday Caleb dressed all in black to go to school. (His class field trip to the farm had been cancelled due to rain.) Black pants, black shirt, black scarf, black gloves, black hat, black sneakers.

He looked very artsy.

When I went to pick him up after school, a teacher came up to me and said, "Today Caleb came up to me and said, 'Look! I am a Black Smith!'"

Seriously. Tell me that's not one of the most clever things you've ever heard from the mouth of a five year old.

Permission to whine?

If you don't want to hear me whine, you should go look somewhere else right now.

Sorry.

Seriously, if a girl can't whine on her own blog, where CAN she whine?

I am 6 months pregnant. I currently weigh 8 lbs less than when I first got pregnant. This diet miracle is thanks to my gall bladder which seems to strongly object to pretty much anything I eat.

I don't eat so much these days. When I asked the ob if this was a problem for the baby and what should I do to make sure she gets what she needs, I was told, "Eh. At this point she's far enough along that you can think of her as a parasite. She's getting everything she needs from your body. You may end up malnourished, but she'll be fine."

This was not as comforting as I suspect the doctor was going for.

The lovely surgeon said that he really really didn't want to take out my gall bladder until after I deliver because A) they'd have to open me up with a big ol' gash in my side and B) any surgery carries with it the risk of pre-term labor. Which at 25 weeks would be bad. He really doesn't want to touch me now, though, because I'm past 25 weeks and my gall bladder is now working it way up my rib cage.

In the mean time, I can eat teeny tiny meals with no more than 5 grams of fat per every three hours or so. If I eat more, I get sick. If I eat meat, I get sick. If I eat cheese or butter, I get sick. I've essentially become a vegan. Which I don't really have a problem with, except I really love cheese and butter. And eggs. I like them, too.

And then even if I don't get sick and have an outright attack, I still am passing stones every now and then because according to the surgeon, my gall bladder is chock full of them. And do they give the pregnant lady some nice pain killers to deal with the passage of each stone? No. No they do not. No painkillers for me.

Now, I have delivered three very large babies with no drugs. Happily. I'm good with that. It's pain that has a purpose and an end and works out just fine for me. (No judgement for anyone who does it differently, this is just how I roll.) As far as I'm concerned, the pain of passing a gall stone serves no purpose, so I don't want to feel it. It's not like I can do anything to change it...well, except not breathe, but that's sort of a problem, too. And yet, I have four more months of this kind of excitement. More exciting because the surgeon pretty much expects to see me back in the ER before I deliver. I'm not allowed to get dehydrated, so as soon as I start throwing up, I have to head over and get fluids, again so I don't have pre-term labor.

My poor family has to live with this, too. Last night I made dinner put it on the table and then spent the rest of the time running to the sink to dry-heave and then come back for dinner conversation. Really, I would like to just go to bed. For the next four months or so. I'm tired. The whole not eating so much thing doesn't help my energy level at all. Oh, well.

Blah. Again, I realize that things could be so much worse and I shouldn't complain. But I'm sort of all done with the stiff upper lip thing this morning and just want to whine.

All better now.