Midnight Madness

We are up, awake, and eating cookies and milk. Why?

That would be because when we got home this evening, T went into her room and fell asleep. From about 7:00 p.m to 11:30, when she came into my room and got in bed with me. And then proceeded to toss and turn.

So, we got up and she got a much-needed bath. She was a mess and I am secretly glad that we will not be attempting to take one in the morning. With all the painting we were doing, T was covered with a fine layer of dark espresso-colored dots from the spray paint. Face dirty, hair dirty, fingernails dirty, etc. Now, at least she's clean, although still sporting some dots.

We're having a couple milano cookies and milk, and then hopefully I can get her to bed again.

The morning promises to be interesting!

What was I waiting for?

Seriously. What the hell was I waiting for????

Long time readers of this blog recall that I threw my back out and herniated 3 discs almost 5 years ago, at the tail end of my maternity leave. Since then, i've had back problems, and found that one of the only chairs in my house that I can sit in, was the glider. It was moved to my living room.

Problem is, the glider was white, and my living room is full of dark espresso brown furniture. Today, I took the bull by the horns, FINALLY, and bought a few cans of spray paint. I did the footstool first, to see how it would turn out, and LOVE IT!!

I bought some extra paint tonight, and will be doing the chair first thing in the morning.

What We've been Up To

On Friday, I also was able to score some cute things for T's room. She is the happy new owner of a Peacock blue shag carpet. Its not showing too well here in the pic, but its really pretty and vibrant in person. Very much a "big girl" rug. Problem is, that in comparison to the old carpet, which was mostly a light pink, her brown furniture looks too dark. It looks much better with white furniture, as you can see here.

So, my granny's old furniture is slated for a reno job. It needs it anyway, b/c the finish on the dresser is so bad. Cardboard boxes had been filed on it at my parents' house, and the cardboard paper stuck to the surface. So, Leonors son will sand and paint it all for me.
The second big purchase was obtained from the container store. I could spend days in that store. Anyway, T has taken to taping photos of friends to her wall next to her bed...with like 9 pieces of tape each. I decided to get her some magnet boards (the pink flowers) and two dry erase boards, that's purpose is to hold photos and such. T is very excited about it all, and claims that she is now a cool girl. She even slept in her own bed last night!

Here's a quick shot of T playing twister, one of her favorites. She's playing with Princess Tiana, here.
And here's a pic of one of her latest purchases from Claires. For some reason, she's taken a shine to sleeping masks, and this one was just too cute. The eyelashes have glitter on them.

Too cute!

It's A MIRACLE!!!

HALLLL-LE-LU-YAH! HALLL-LE-LU-YAH! HA-LE-E-LU-YAH!!!!!

My fever is gone!!

Popped the first two antibiotics at 4:00 p.m. yesterday, and my fever steadily decreased throughout the night. Woke up and it was gone. Its like I'm a changed woman! Still have some of the other symptoms, but they are much lessened. What the heck did people do before antibiotics?

Since I was feeling so much better, I had a big day. I had been planning on taking off a couple days next week to run errands and accomplish some other things without T around, but now I really don't have the luxury of taking more time off, given all the work I missed this week. So, I did some running around today.

The biggest thing I did was buy T's birthday presents. A quick stop into the toy store, and I'm done! Let's just say its going to be a Barbie Birthday when it comes to presents. I snagged the following, one of which will be from my parents:

• Barbie Cash Register (T's learning about $$ at school)
• Barbie Rain Umbrella
• Asian Barbie
• Shimmer, Glimmer and Shyne (From Barbie's fashion fairytale)
• Mario/donkey kong DS game

They are all now squirrelled away in my closet, hidden from sight.

We're now home watching Megamind, and all is right in our world once more!

I Scored Drugs!!

WoooHooo! Went to my doc, who is a TOTAL MISER when it comes to dispensing antibiotics. Not today, though. She was very concerned that my symptoms started with immediate fever and cough low in chest for 3 days, then moved up to my nose...versus starting in the nose and moving to the chest and then developing a fever. Says my symptoms are more dangerous, therefore was prescribing a zpack of antibiotics. I think she was worried about possible pnemonia...which I do not have as of yet!

I also got an oral steroid, to knock the asthma out of my lungs. In addition to sudafed, multivitamin and advil. So I'm basically popping pills right and left. And I'm not a pill popper, so this is a major PITA. Luckily, the incentive to feel better is huge, so I'm grinning and bearing it.

Just checked, and my fever remains. 99.8 Doc said it will probably take a couple more days to kick it, so I'm home tomorrow and this weekend. Luckily, its Megamind weekend (the dvd releases tomorrow in stores), so T and I will be having movie night and game night. No painting the town red for us!

Getting worse

Yep, I seem to be getting worse, not better. Now, on top of my ever present fever and cough, I have a full-blown nose action going on. Chest is much worse, too. I think its pretty clear that my asthma has been triggered, and just feel miserable. 4th frickin' day of unrelenting fever.



I'm trying to get in to see the doc today, otherwise I'll drop in on some unsuspecting urgent care center.



Only high point is that T is OK...for now.

Infirmary Central

I'm starting to feel like I run an infirmary around here. I am officially sick. Stayed home today wallowing in bed. Still feel like crap. Fever hovers between 99.8 and 101. Will probably have to stay home tomorrow as well. All my statements and appointments I had at work to be reset. Sigh.

I've realized that this is the 3rd fever I've had this year...and its only February! Before T, I don't think I had 3 fevers in 30 years! Of course this time, its the adults infecting each other. So far T is OK. Lets hope that as soon as I'm better she doesn't succomb to this bug.

Meanwhile, big milestone tonight: T came out of the shower this evening, and announced that she shampooed and conditioned her hair all by herself...for the first time ever. By the smell of it, it appears to be true. We'll see, though, after it dries whether or not she was able to wash all the soap out. Tomorrow may be a ponytail day. Either way, kudos to T for doing it herself! She is extremely proud of herself. She claimed, "I'm just like an adult, but a little girl".

Weekend Update

So, we had some fun this weekend, but it was not without a cost. Dot came over on Sat., so that I could go to a surprise bday party for a friend. She was sick as a dog. Deep cough and fever. Two days later, I have a cough and think I have a slight fever. I'm hoping if I get it, that its a milder case than what she got.

On Sunday, after dealing with my parents, I took T off to Sunset Place, and we went to "Color Me Mine". That's one of those ceramics stores that are popping up. We had a fab time painting a small box shaped like a butterfly. After painting, we leave it there to be cooked in the kiln, and will pick it up next weekend. We then went to the movies: Gnomeo and Juliette. Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about. Cute movie.

Today, since I'm getting sick, we have had a slow day around the house. Carlos has been here working and I'm the proud new owner of a patio table, chairs and sideboard, that have been thoroughly sanded, primed and painted a nice black semi-gloss. 1000% improvement there!

That's it for now. Meanwhile, it appears I owe my Aunt Connie a nickel. She is well aware of just how quickly I cave under my daughter's pleading gaze. T got a little purchase from her fav store: Claire's, an accessory store geared toward young girls through teens...despite my empty vows!

No School

Let me just say that the teachers at T's school know what they're doing when it comes to scheduling their floating holidays. They have 3 "unscheduled" ones, that they spring on us just a few weeks before they happen...much to a single working mom's annoyance! First was the Friday b/f MLK Day. Yesterday was the second: Friday before Pres Day. Therefore, we get a 4 day weekend!

T and I just hung out yesterday. Bank and Breakfast at Dennys, then Costco where I had to pick up some photos I had ordered. While there I found a new sun umbrella for my back patio and the heaviest stand known to man. Finally, my umbrella may actually stay up in a light breeze. Carlos was here sanding and painting my patio furniture, so at least the patio is shaping up for the party.

T then asked if we could do something fun after hauling all our costco purchases home. T usually means a park, an arcade, or something like that. This time, though, when I asked her what she wanted to do...mentally preparing myself for an afternoon in the park, my darling daughter replied....

"I want to go to the mall, walk around, and just look at stuff"

She still wanted to go, even when informed we would not be buying anything!

SCORE!!!!!

So, off we went to Dadeland to troll the mall and have dinner. Great way to start the weekend!

I'm one year older

...not so sure about wiser, though.

On an upnote, I am feeling better albeit not 100%. I picked T up from school today and we went out to dinner. She said I could pick where ever I wanted to go. Of course, whenever I mentioned a restaurant, she nixed the idea b/c they didn't serve her favorite food: spaghetti.

Since I didn't want to go to our usual haunt, I picked an old restaurant we rarely go to out of desperation. Unfortunately, I was so annoyed I didn't remember the reason we rarely go there is that the food is barely mediocre and is way overpriced.

Left there for more outrageously expensive food: Ice cream from the ice cream parlour (Ben and J's). My new fav flavor is "americone". Vanilla ice cream with caramel and pieces of cone literally mixed into it all.

What's your favorite flavor?

I think I'm sick

So, I woke up this morning with a deep cough. Since I didn't feel so bad, i figured it was my asthma acting up. Pollen counts are apparently off the charts. Then I started feeling worse as the day went one. Frankly, I blamed it on the panty girdle I put on for the first time in about a year. Squeezing the life out of me.

So at lunch I go to the drugstore to buy an assortment of drugs...advil, vitamins, airbourne, etc. as all mine expired about 5 yrs ago. I return to work and around 3:00 p.m. go running to the bathroom where I throw up. Yuck.

All I can say is thank god it was a monday, and the bathroom floor was relatively clean. So, I'm not sure if I have food poisoning or some bug.

I blame it all on T. Even if she doesn't come down with something b/c of her strong immune system, I figure she's a carrier and infects me with every childhood affliction known to man. Other than alchohol situations, I haven't thrown up in like 20 years.

I'm off to crawl into bed.

We are Addict Enablers

Yes, we were out again pushing girl scout cookies. This time in front of a bookstore, way out in west Kendall...almost the everglades as far as I'm concerned. Though exhausting, we made some good sales. Therefore, this should be the last sale of the season for us. Yippee!

I am now an expert on cookie sales and have come to discover that 5 and 6 yr olds only last about 1 hour to 1.5 hours. They then check out and just start running around wild playing with each other, leaving the adults to take of the role of "cookie pusher". That's why it was so exhausting.

I made up a few cheers in anticipation of the sale, and hwas hoping that the girls would come up with some cheerleading moves to put to them:

Girl Scout cookies, what a treat
For a price that can't be beat!

Girl Scout cookies, they're a thrill
If you don't buy them, no one will!

Clearly, I've been watching a bit too much glee. The girls were resoundingly uninterested. Sigh.

So, we're at home relaxing before going over to my parents house to check things out there. We're all working on a report T must do on Gerald Ford for president's day, so we're searching for "kindergarten appropriate" facts that T can recite to the class...hopefully keeping under wraps our political leanings ;)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

My Genious

First Spelling Test

T had her first spelling test today and aced the thing...making her mother especially proud. During the first 1/2 of the year, the kids had "sight words" to learn. Meaning, they had to recognize the words on paper, but were not asked how to spell them. Now, they have spelling words instead. The child not only must be able to recognize the word, but needs to be able to spell the thing without seeing it. A slightly different skill.

It truly amazes me what these kids are being taught and are learning at such a young age. In my day? All we were doing in kindergarten was learning out letters and numbers, our address and how to tell time. That's it. Otherwise, we were playing, fingerpainting, or eating paste.

Boy, how times have changed!

Is the cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?

Hmmm, I have two ways of looking at today:

1. Letting T sleep in late did no good, b/c she came home with a yellow light anyway,

or

2. Letting T sleep in late was a stroke of genius, and we successfully avoided the red light.

I'm going to go with scenario number 2. I consider myself a glass is half full kind of person anyway. But yes, T came home with a yellow light. Not sure why. Something about playing in class. I'll get the full story tomorrow.

Meanwhile, she's officially unplugged for tonight and tomorrow, which bugs me b/c that means I'm unplugged as well. All I can do is play on the computer.

Clearly, I'm have some creative punishment thinking to do, so that I can watch Glee tomorrow night. I'll have to come up with some obscure reason to amend the punishment, yet still maintain an illusion of consistency.

I always did love making up my own rules!

Somebody's in Trouble

What am I doing blogging at 800 on a monday morning? Well, I'm waiting for my kid to wake up.

Last night, I send T to bed around 10:00, which is late for most kids, but i can't get the kid to sleep before then. Anyway, instead of going to bed myself, I come back into the living room to watch Glee, the news, etc. Around 1230 to 1245, I go into bed...to find T up and awake.

She had turned on a small light, and had been coloring the whole time, unbeknownst to me.

I tried waking her up at 700, and she literally started crying. So, I'm letting her sleep in and we will be late for school. I figure that's better than inflicting a Taylor running on 6 hours sleep onto the class.

That would be a red light, just waiting to happen!

Wacky Tacky Day

Here's my wacky, tacky girl. We've had such fun with this. Her camo shirt is just the cutest, it says in big glitter letters, "I'm Hiding From You".

T was particulary proud of her hair. Not one, not two, but THREE pony tails, with one braided.
All the kids at school looked just as crazy.
We brought our girl scout uniform in a bag, and did a quick change in the car. The dinner was great and all the girls had fun.

We're now home and embroiled in kindergarten homework. I'll work on daisy photos as soon as I can.

Awwwww

You guys are the best! Defending my little abode, and all. Warms my heart. I think my comments re my house are generally like comments about a spouse, family, best friends, and religion. One can criticize one's own morning noon and night...but woe unto anyone else who thinks they can too!

Anyway, thank you all for your comments...and letting me know someone other than my sissy, aunt connie, and ceci read this thing. Your comments have brought me down to earth a bit. I have a tendancy to go overboard when throwing parties. I confess to being the one who had a patio built in her backyard, so that I could have a dance floor so that I could hire a band to play at one of my annual (and much anticipated) xmas parties.

For 11 years straight I had a huge open house party at xmas. That annual event forced me to do upkeep around here. It all ended a year or two before taylor. I had to save $$ in anticipation of the adoption. After becoming a mom, well, $$ just seems to evaporate. So does time, right? I have yet to figure that one out.

Nothing fun at school today. T had to wear her uniform and go to church. When asked if she like that, she replied:

"Well, it kind of takes a long time"

I had to laugh. Truer words were never spoken.

My Hippy Chick and My Dump!

Get a load of my little hippy chick, Marlo Thomas wanna-be! T was all tricked out in her 60's garb, hoop earrings and everything. I attempted to give her a bit of a Laura Petrie hairdo, with so-so results. Remember her flip-action?













I thought T looked FAB!

My front door on the other hand? Not so much.

Which brings up my next point: My dump of a house.

This birthday party thing is turning into a colassal money pit. Despite the recovery of our treasured decorations last night, I'll be shelling out even more money than I ever anticipated. So much for financial restriction!

The problem is, if I'm going to have people over to my house, there are certain things that really must be done. I haven't had a real party in over 5 years, so things have pretty much gone to pot. I need my house painted. I need a bit of landscaping work done: sodding, mulch, extra plants here and there. My outside table and chairs need a thorough sanding and painting, I've been meaning to paint the furniture in T's room white so that it all matches, etc. You get the idea.

Once I start looking around the place and picturing it through the eyes of strangers, my little casa gringa, our oasis in the heart of little havana, is looking a bit like...well...hell! If I had been having my annual parties through the years, odds are these jobs would have been taken care of long ago. Instead, I'm faced with dealing with them now. Better late then never, I guess.

So, I'm praying things stay calm on the 123 front, so that I can get all this accomplished. Fingers crossed everyone!