Police State Over-Steppng ... again

I just received an email from babies-R-Us, which is supposed to be doing some big trade-in program ... in the email it stated two new guidelines they are going to enforce regarding car seats --- totally asinine if you ask me ....

1. Children should remain in rear-facing car seats until the age of 2 years old!!!!

2. Children should remain in Booster car seats until they are 12 years old

While I understand that the American academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has children's safety in mind (as well as all that study money they get from the car-seat manufacturers) in mind ... Have you ever tried to get a toddler to want to sit backwards in the car? Can you imagine the number of kids who are going to suffer from motion-sickness as they try to look out the side windows while the car is going? I'm sorry but as a mother and having a degree in Child Psychology from one of the leading colleges in the field ... I have to say ... BULLOCKS!

Now about those boosters - when my kids turned four (before the law changed) they couldn't WAIT to get out of those damned things ... My youngest missed the new "boosters until 8yrs" by one month, you try to tell an 8 yr old that they have to sit in a booster like some baby after having nearly 4 hrs of freedom! Now you are going to have to plug them in until they are 12? BULLOCKS!!!

What will happen when these kids start school? Will the school districts require parents to send Booster seats with their kids in order to ride the school bus? Oh wait that can't happen because they somehow have convinced the government that it is safer NOT to belt kids in on the buses ... when I talked to the transportation dept at our old school district, and probably got the most honest answer I've ever heard:

they won't do it because the belts could be used as a weapon against the driver but more probably against another student, and since the district cut funding for bus aides to watch the kids they felt that the driver could not control an over-crowded bus of children

I'm surprised that they haven't recommended that anyone with a child under the age of 15 ness to drive a vehicle with third-row seating so that children will be better protected from front impacts.

Actually I'm really shocked that the Feds aren't dictating that no vehicles that hold more than 4 passengers can be sold because they have too big of a carbon-footprint (gag gag gag wretch) ... This will force people to have fewer children because they wont have room for them in their cars ... Else it will force people to use public transportation - which already have sky-rocketing pricing to cover operating costs because NOBODY WANTS TO RIDE IT as it is now ... then they can dictate that cars be made thinner so that people won't be able to fit in them unless they are as skinny as one of those 14 year old models who have been starving themselves since age 5 and don't even register in a size of the ladies department ...

Sorry ... Government over stepping their boundaries just gets my dander up!

Here's an idea ... LOWER THE SPEED LIMITS ... As speed limits go up, the number of & degree of injuries have increased ... limits were increased as people became overly confident of their cars equipment - air bags & anti-lock brakes led to speed limits on roads of 70 mph and above! Car seat or not, of you get in an accident at that speed someone is going to get hurt ... and the majority of hospital visits after an accident are going to be children who can not adequately describe any injuries they might have.

"Who Cares About the Economy?"

Those words came from my 11 year olds mouth today as I listened to the radio and Comte plated this post ... And that is probably the same thing that most adults feel too when they listen to the news.

Who cares?

We all better start caring ... Not just Our economy in the US but around the world as well.

Because very quietly ... Almost as we slept ... They ... Whoever "they" are ... Have moved us into a Global economy.

Affront from the first loan from France to fund the revolutionary war to where other nations actually own the debt ... To other nations making the products we need for everyday life ... To criminal charges being dropped for financial favors I guess I better not say that since it's just specukation on my part - but the coincidence was awe-inspiring.

But just to show the extent of this new Global economy ... You will have to read the next post about the UN ...

It is so sad that everyone has their hand in our pockets ... But the cost will really be - not our grandchildrens future - but our own children's future as the problems which everyone is sweeping under the carpet for contemplation "later" are making a bigger and bigger bump under that rug.

EXCUSE ME???

So I'm listening to the radio this morning -- yes, I took a break from Fox News -- and I heard on the radio that teachers, or rather the Teacher's Union, is claiming that the main reason that kids are failing in our state is due to a lack of parent involvement.

WHAT???

Have you ever tried to get involved with your kid's education? The teacherrs will treat you like you are dumb/stupid ... if you are lucky, you will get a call back from a teacher within three days of calling ... if you are lucky, your teacher will update your child's grade once a week and be able to tell you where they are at ... if you are lucky, you can arrange a parent/teacher conference sooner than twice a year.

Why?? Because the union contract says that's all they need to do.

They only have to update grades twice a semester/qtr (depending on your school's grading system) - midterm & final grades.

They only have to meet face-to-face with parents twice a year and even then for only 15minutes.

They only have to send grades via mail if a child is failing their class, but don't expect to get the report in a timely manner - there is nothing that says they have to mail out the grades right away ... we have gotten such reports almost 2 weeks after it was too late to fix the grade.

I learned all this from a resent conversation with the prinicipal from my son's school -- we are fortunate to have access online to a service which shows us our children's grades in each class, secondary-high school, so we can check to be sure that homework is getting in, that test scores are within acceptable parameters, etc.

Our district also makes webpages available for teachers - to put up contact information, assignments, study guides etc.

Now if only the teachers would USE THEM!!! Our tax money is going to pay for it, one way or another, and there are some teachers who havent updated their pages for over a year!

The conversation with the principal went like this (highly paraphrased):

me: there is one teacher who hasn't updated his [my son] grades in about 3 weeks!
principal: there is nothing I can do, they are only required to do it twice a quarter.
me: but how can we tell the kids they have to hand in homework on a specific day, when the teachers can't even get their work done in a timely manner.
principal: I totally agree - but there's nothing I can do.
me: what do you mean there is nothing you can do? you're the principal
principal: the contract the Union negotiated says they only have to update twice a quarter because we are on a quarter system.
me: Let me get this straight -- they won't post when my child is failing ... and the teachers themselves might not realize my child is failing right away - because they aren't required too?
principal: well I would think that a teacher would know if they had a child with a problem.
me: no they won't! We've been running into this at the High School - if a kid isn't acting up in class and being a disturbance, the teachers assume they are doing fine and the kid "falls throuogh the cracks"
principal: that is probably very true
me: Look - all I want is my kids grades to be updated. Surely the teachers get some office time, they can at least update them once a week can't they?
principal: It would be nice - but they are only required to do it twice a quarter.

On a side note: teachers are given a 'free hour' every week where they are supposed to catch up on such 'paperwork' ... but many of the teachers are using this time either as a 'coffee break', for correcting papers, or (in case of the high school) helping kids who didn't understand what the neck the teacher said in class.

I took this conversation to indicate that our district should brace itself for a teacher's strike in the near future.

BUT I want to know what other job in America pays full-time wages for a part-time job, and they aren't required to actually do their job but once every month & a half???

and they dare to blame the problems with the education system on lack of "parent involvement"???? How about TEACHER INVOLVEMENT?????

RECALL: CHILDREN'S LIGUID MEDS

There is a recall of about 40 different liquid medicines going on ... while it is being labelled as "voluntary", I've heard that the company really was not given much choice by either the FDA or Johnson&Johnson.

Full information of the Recalled Products can be found on the FDA recall page for these products.

Here's the jest of it --

inspectors found repeated issues with the plant ... either there wasn't enough meds, or too much med, per ml .... in some cases "foreign matter" was found in the meds - i.e. metal shavings ... etc.

but there have been no reports of adverse reactions (in otherwords, they don't know of anyone who has been hurt by it .... yet)

Here is a partial, non-detailed list of products ....

• Tylenol Infant Drops
• Children's Tylenol Suspensions (such as toddlers uee)
• Children's Tylenol PLUS Suspensions (the stuff for colds/allergies/runny noses/etc)
• Motrin Infant Drops
• Motrin Liquid Suspension
• Children's Zyrtec
• Children's Liquid Benedyrl

Please note that some of these products have been included in Kits the company put together (especially those given to new parents who leave the hospital) ... so if you know someone with an infant or small child -- generally the liquids are used for kids under 6 yrs old -- you may wish to pass this information on to them ASAP

If you go to the McNeil pharmacuticals website Recall page you will find the process for getting refunds/coupons for products you have already purchases ... their full list of products has photos of the products involved and further info on how to read your medicine box/bottle to see if it is one of the products in question.

BREAKING NEWS: District Wide Lockdown

UPDATE 1:
the threat was shortly before 730am this morning. A young male said he was going to shoot up the school and then shoot himself. This was left on the 3-11 phone system on the district (have not idea what thats for, I'll get back to you).

No specific school was mentioned but they took it all very seriously - so that was why they locked down ALL the schools.

They also said that they have forensic specialists in electronics hunting down whoever posted simular messages on Facebook & My Space around the same time ... one can bet that St. Paul police will also do the same for the email that was sent to Cretin-Durham Hall.
________________
The Mpls. School system has locked down ALL their K-12 schools because of something that was posted on Facebook & My Space. That is 60 schools, 35,000 students, 6,200 staff members.

They have the schools at "Code Orange" ... that means that once in the classrooms the kids are not allowed out (not even bathroom breaks from my understanding) .... they can not mingle in the halls - straight to class ... no one is allowed to come into the buildings except authorized personale ... and they are not allowing parents to pick their kids up -- well okay, they are asking firmly that parents not pull their kids.
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One school in neighboring St. Paul, Cretin-Durham high school, is also on Lock-Down. They recieved an email with a simular threat. But it has to be said that Cretin-Durham has quite a few Mpls. based students at their school. Cretin is a private Catholic school, they have a military program (more than just JROTC) ...

Expo Magnet school also went on Lock Down for a time, but only because of its poximity to Cretin-Durham ... NOT because of any specific threat.

Things that make you go "HMMM"

This blows me away - and it really makes me sad, because I have a feeling that the story behind this is a lot sadder than they are letting on.

An 11 year old girl has given birth to a 5-lb baby girl .... yeah you read that right. she would have been just 10 yrs old when she got pregnant ... they say she had a 'boy friend' who got her pregnant.

Apparently they had a story I missed last week of a 9 year old in China who gave birth as well -- WHAT???

OMGs - my own daughter is this age ... I can NOT imagine her birthing a baby ... I have an 18yr daughter and I can't imagine her being able to have a baby .... a 10 yr old is simply NOT able to care for this child - but by the sounds of things she is going to have a strong family support system behind her.

geez -- is this evolution or a throw-back?

I mean when you think about it purely scientifically - this is an onset of nearly 4 yr earlier than just two generations ago ... I've heard of some 14 yr olds getting pregnant but never a 10 yr old.
So is this an indication that human bodies are changing to reflect evolution, or even just a indication of good nutrition/health care?

Or is it a throw back to those times when people didn't live as long so reproduction had to take place at a younger age to perpetuate the species?

Does this make us Flying Pig Farmers?

My son - the one who just went thru major eye surgery - had a fever of 101F on Sunday ... we got him into the dr** who wrote him out a prescript 'just in case' it was strep event though the test was negative - and he does have a 'streppy' cough ... didn't blame her ...

Yesterday the fever was just about gone ... it was like 99F ... and I thought for sure he was going to be able to go back to school today - antibiotics the dr gave him. And he was acting fine...

This morning -- 4am -- he is sick as a dog. Fever is back up to 103.3F under the arm (that's 104.3F normal) -- HOLY CRAP!!! There's no way whatever it was was getting touched by the antibiotic ... and it couldn't be the flu - temps with the flu don't get over 102F, that's what they told me last year ....

then to top it all off, he looked at himself in the mirror (he has an obsession with the new eye color) and noticed that there is blood pooled up under his eye lid! Apparently while getting sick, he popped a blood vessel ... it looked nasty, but there was a call to the eye dr just to be sure (they said to give it 4 hours and see, so I won't be feeling any relief until about 3 this afternoon)

So off he goes to the dr's office again. Hubby took a couple of hours off work to take him down and sit since they squeezed him in & double/triple booked ... well ... you got a kid sitthing there coughing up a storm, holding a bucket and having a hard time walking because he is weak kneed from his high fever -- BOOM -- hardly any wait ....

Good News: no more antibiotic, & he won't have to get the Swine Flu shot
Bad News: He tested positive for Influenza A ... though they can't say for sure, they treat all Flu A as Swine Flu.

Great - now there are just 4 others that need to go thru it in the house ... on the up side - dr said if anyone else starts to show signs we can just call the office and they will call in the prescription for us, no need to be seen.

Sigh -- hubby is supposed to go to Boston this weekend for work .... he is considering cancelling it in case I get sick too ... I'm thinking he will get hit with it before I do.

**
NOTE: the dr on call was the one dr we refuse to see at the regular clinic. She is the one who twisted my daughter's ankle every which way to see if it was broken even though we had an Xray that showed a break. "well she's not screaming or pulling away" - yeah, ignore the fingernails dug into the exam table, the tears rolling down her face, and the lip she is trying to bite off trying to keep from yelling - so it doesn't really surprise me that she totally missed giving a flu test, was however amazed she gave a prescript 'just in case'

Tangents

Okay - so my life today is full of tangents...you know those paths you end up on that you just weren't expecting but something seemed to take you there?

Today has pretty much evolved around one person - my eldest daughter.

Love her to death, but she can spark an argument quicker than lightening.

Example:

She is in the final stages of getting her Gold Award from the Girl Scouts (it is the highest award offered, and she started 2 yrs behind the other girls in her troop since we found them late & she has gotten farther than the others .... even farther behind when you take into consideration that some of these girls have been in the same troop for the last 8 yrs - very proud of her in this respect) ....

Any how her troop Leader called to set up a time for the girls to meet with their 'supervisor' for their project -- a song book & monthly get together for residents at an assisted living facility to bring the residents closer together (they suffer from the same 'apathy of neighborhood' as so many residential areas of the US ... because of the overturn of people coming and going, they never seem to take the time to know their neighbors ... or in this case fellow residents) --- it was a simple question, although once 'translated' thru the daughter it got confusing.

Answer wasn't so simpe: any day that she can get a ride since eldest is moving out and he won't be around anymore to give her a ride.

This ran into a discussion about the van keys .... to keep him from 'borrowing' the van without permission while we are out I commented that we might take the main & spare with us when we go somewhere ....

this led to daughter saying 'or leave them with me' ... I gave her a funny look -- you have to understand that he can get her to cave-in fairly quickly and she would end up giving him the keys if he really wanted them ...

this led to daughter flying off the handle of my apparently accusing her of joy-riding with the car while we are gone (that would never happen) and that she would only do it if something happened to the little-ones and it was an 'emergency' .... my response was three numbers ... 9-1-1.

This ran into a "discussion" on how she will be getting her liscense soon ... and my retort that I would like her to get a bit of the nasty weather under her tires while she still needed to have someone in the car with her ... someone who can give her advice so she didn't end up in the snowy ditch like her brother (and he had already been driving for several years).

Well -- you can imagine the reaction ... and extra 3 - 4 months of driving with someone?!

You would have thought she had just found out that we were going to move or something (oh that's a battle I don't want to go thru again)

That's it Bog them down ...

Education News: How much homework? Broward County School Board approves homework guidelines for students, educators. Too much homework:

"FORT LAUDERDALE - The Broward County School Board is giving a new assignment to teachers for the upcoming school year: Take care when you're handing out homework.

The School Board on Wednesday unanimously approved homework guidelines that urge teachers to assign academically challenging work while also being considerate about not assigning too much homework.

While the policy doesn't stipulate time limits for homework, the district's guidelines suggest 10 minutes of work for each grade level. A first grader's assignment would take about 10 minutes to finish, while a high school junior's total homework load would take 110 minutes."

So now teachers will have to get together and actually talk about what assignments they are going to give the kids? Actually as a mom of 4, I love the idea of limiting the homework, I just don't see how its going to work out ... so much can go wrong.

I hope the Board is very careful how they word this because one comma in the wrong spot and those 12th graders could end up with - well if they are like my kids they have 7 classes a day - 14 hours of work a night!!

Yes - that's right, your child can join the wonderful world of stress, stress, stress.

Lets do the math shall we?

24 hours in a day
8 hours a day in school = 16 hours left
1 hour travel time/day = 15 hours left
14 hours homework = 1 hour left
8 hours sleep(min.)/day = -7 hours
1 hour for meals (min.)/day = -8 hours
1 hour on phoneor computer/day = -9 hours

hmm no time for play ... no time for excersize ... no time for family or friends other than on computer/phone ... and look they loose 9 hours everyday ....

that is 63 hours a week ... 252 hours a month ... 3024 days a year (for year round schooling)... so by the end of the year the kids will have lost a total of 126 days - they would have to have nearly another 1/2 year in order to get the minimum done for classes - and never really be 'kids'

remember these times didn't include if they have jobs either ... or in some cases, children of their own.

Here's an idea -- teachers should teacher during the day instead of checking emails ... and cut the amount of homework per night to 10 minutes per subject.

slow weekend

well - yesterday hubby and I did the grocery shopping just to be greeted when we got home by two of the four kids telling us their throats hurt. No biggie -- hubby and I are both fighting head colds with the post-nasal thing that wears out the throat ... so we figured that it was the same thing for the kids.

Well last night our baby - poor thing she's no baby any more but she will always be called "the baby" - complained that she was so cold, and even a warm bath wasn't warm enough for her. She didn't feel like she had a fever so she snuggled with dad when she was done but still complained she was cold ... so i took her temp. 99.2 F ... okay - bedtime, but still no biggie.

I read to her a chapter of the latest book we're reading (Little House on the Prarie) and she started snoring after the first chapter - which is really good because it was the fourth time I had started that chapter as she keeps falling asleep by the time I get to the 4th or 5th page lately - well about 2 hours later she got out of bed and asked if I would help her back as she was light headed -- hey, I'm no fool and I've been a mom long enough to know that is never a good sign so I grabbed the thermometer and took her temp.

She was so pale and her cheeks were so rosy - if she had been a baby I would have thought she was teething (apple cheeks) - I knew her fever had blossomed ... but not all the way to 101.9!!!

So after a couple of children's tylenol and a couple of hours extra sleep she got up again, so Motrin was added to the equation .... but by 6am this morning her temp was up to 102.8F!!
That is the same way our son's temp acted just before he was diagnosed with mono -- so we weren't taking any chances ... she went straight to the dr. this morning the moment that the After-Hours clinic was open ...

they didn't bother to test for mono -- but she did test positive for mono. I have to say I'm glad she had something she could take a subscription for, she will be able to go back to school Tuesday w/o a problem. The dr was nice enough to give us a prescript for her brother w/o having us take him in for an appointment, since these two are best buds and they were having the same symptomes and he is getting over mono .... very nice of him.

but other than that its been a slow weekend ... didn't even see anything in the news to comment on -- and you know how rare that is.

Oh Great!

Okay so hubby and I decided to do some last minute shopping - which wound up being cut short due to flu - and we way over spent this year.

Hubby got me a turntable that has am/fm radio, cd-r, turntable ... and I can record from my old platters onto cd's so I can preserve some of those very old children's records that I have that can't be found anymore. My only concern is that, well, they haven't been kept in the best situation over the last 10 yrs .... I'm hoping they aren't so warped that they won't play or play funny.

I am especially happy that I will be able to save my Raggedy Ann & Andy record -- it was my very very favorite ever since I got it and still find myself singing songs from it ... and considering how I used to fall asleep listening to it, even after college, it makes complete sense that I would have "Raggedy Andy", "The Camel With The Wrinkled Knees", and "Mother Dear" stuck in my head.

I can't wait to get it all onto my iPod!!!

Hubby found a new vcr/dvd-r machine ... the last one he bought to replace the one in the basement you might recall turned out to be a return (as evident by the dvd we found inside it) and they would only refund 10% of the price -- I was going to argue with them but hubby decided to just take it back (too bad too, it was a nice panasonic - I like panasonic) ... but when we were at Target we found a cheap $64 that should suffice until he can find something he really likes.

I did finally talk him into spending some money on himself ... but as I don't know if my son reads my blog or not ... I can't say anymore about things until after the holidays.

We were going to hit the supermarket too and grab their ham for $0.99/lb and get another one of their turkeys at $0.88/lb. plus some other goodies that they have on sale ... but #1, I forgot to print up the list as I really wasn't expecting hubby to take me (wanted to just get some stocking stuffers ... and we still forget to get the kids their slippers) .... and #2 hubby wound up getting sick at Target.

So we got home and ever since he has been just miserable ... no fever yet, no vomit, no coughing ... but oh the poor porceline in the bathroom.

Then during the football game (Green Bay vs. Chicago) oldest son finally admitted that he isn't feeling well -- he's got it too, only with strong chills. This kid NEVER gets sick ... if he catches a cold more than once a year its unusual ... so having him catch the flu is really unusual.

We've been visited by the Grinch

or maybe its just Scrooge.

We have had to cancel the big family dinner for next week -- our youngest boy has mono.

dr thought maybe he would be able to go back to school next week since its a short week, but I don't know ... may just keep him out until after winter break.

I hate making him have to make up for two weeks (well, most of last week and this week) ... he should be able to do a great chunk of it over the week and two day vacation ... yep, they don't even get a full two weeks anymore - but I might digress here (actually I already did and editted myself, hee hee)

I will have to contact his teachers and see what we can do to keep him up to speed with his classes, or at least keep him from falling too far behind in them.

But because we aren't having the huge celebration we are comtemplating not putting up the tree ... such a bother to just take it down in a couple of weeks ... but then, it just isn't christmas without the tree.

and then there are the kids ... sick, but they want a tree ... hmmm .... but it just doesn't feel like christmas .... don't know why .... ever since we moved there is just something that keeps me for getting too festive ... and its been nearly 8 yrs now.

maybe we will put up the tree anyhow ... hubby wants to just put up the tree top, I'm leaning towards the whole tree.

we will see ... keep you informed.

Hallelujah and Pass the Lysol

Aw man -- just when I thought things were going to get back to normal.

Day after Thanksgiving (did I go over this already?) my youngest got sick ... she was put on zytromiacin which seemed to make her sicker, but then she got better ... a week off school and then she went back on Tuesday (she got an upset tummy very early Monday morning - like barely Monday) but then she was fine so back she went.

Then we got a message from the High School that Whooping Cough had been diagnosed in 'several' students without being any central group effected ... well oldest daughter has had a cold that was hanging on for about 3 weeks so in she went -- poor thing, they did the test up the nose - still no word on the results but I doubt she has it. Dr put her on zythomiacin too.

Now youngest son went to dr yesterday because he was running a fever & getting sick as well. Dr. put him on amoxicillan to counteract the Strep the dr thought he had, didn't even bother with the test .... he is still running a temp between 101 - 103F depending on what med he is on. I'm hoping he will break his fever during some sleep.

well, thought okay this is it. the kids have their Christmas show at church on sunday and then a week (and a half, stupid school board) of school and then Yule celebration will begin. Aw.

I am no where near going to get these mittens done for the kids like I wanted for christmas but I was using the day to knit on them a bit - since son didn't need me to hold his hand too much today - my kids really hate getting sick.

so i'm knitting happily along when hubby texts to check in on son ... when the phone rings ... youngest girl needs to come home - she's sick again! so hubby went and got her, and decided to take the rest of the day off -- good thing too, because she started complaining about a sore throat and so it was off to the drs office yet again.

damn.

so now IF I can break the son's fever he can go to church sunday and play Joseph ... oldest daughter should be fine and will be able to play her part ... but the youngest is supposed to be an Angel (type-casting) but I'm not so sure about her - last time it took her nearly a week to recover.

here I was thinking i was going to have a bunch of time to get stuff done -- HA.

so now the main chatting room is getting filled with stuff that i would normally have had in the bedroom so that I can be close to where the kids are at if they need me ... i've got two cots in the hallway now for the sick ones to sleep on so they can get to the bathroom quickly - we will have to be very careful at the doorways because one of them will be blocking our bedroom door, the conversation room, and the upstairs door which is where the kids bedrooms are.

We would put them upstairs but they just don't seem to make it to the bathrooms on time if they are over carpetting -- and last time we did it, the steam cleaner got clogged (yuk). just easier all around to put them in the sprayed floor hallway.

well -- I have to remember to buy stock in the Lysol company, and the Pine-Sol company ... I may just corner the market on it all.

Well the house is still standing

In case you are wondering what that is about -- I learned an important lesson today.

Never cook sausage under the electric broiler.

Yes .... I thought I could do it. I've cooked steaks under there without a problem, so thought that the sausage wouldn't be that much different -- boy was I wrong!

I set the timer for 5 minutes and walked out of the room for less than a minute (remember I had the timer going) and thought the grease spatter was way too much for being in there for less than a minute.

So I started to open the oven door when flames came out .... luckily my first instincts proved correct ... shut the door, turn off the broiler. I opened the door again and still a bit of flame popped out. okay now what? call 911 -- or just wait a bit. between the flame & the smoke I wasn't sure.

The smoke was white & not black so I figured that it was just the grease ... but was it the grease on the boiling element or on the pan? I had to look again .... I just had to.

Very carefully I opened the door -- flame was mostly out, but a little flare up when I opened the door ... it was the grease hitting the element (better than the pan, less fuel to feed it). closed the door and got the silicone mitts on.

Opened the door again and moved the pan to the bottom rack (it was too hot to put on the counter) ... sure enough once I moved the pan the flare ups completely stopped. But the fear wasn't done yet.

See there was this horrid smell of burnt plastic - like the covering of wires (at least that's what I was thinking) ... so got a hold of hubby and we talked about it .... found a flashlight and took as good a look as I could at the way the oven was made to see if there was anyway that the flames could have gotten into the insulation between the oven and the cabinetry -- we have a build in oven -- but I didn't think there was a way.

On the bright side -- today is our 20th wedding anniversary so hubby took us out for dinner. It was pretty funny actually .... wait I'll post seperate on that one!!

hubby took a look at it though when we got back and we turned the broiler on just to make sure it was still getting juice and everything looks okay. oven will need a bit of cleaning, I will have to be careful though when I do the broiler unit so I don't damage it but that will need the grease wiped off too - its between the coils as well as on them and I don't want to remove it to do it.

Like I said ... the house is still standing and nothing horrid happened.

Happy Birthday!

Well I will probably be taking the day off today from everything .... well, okay, I'll be taking a few hours off from everything today ...

Its my youngest child's 9th birthday today!!

She was so excited that she came down at 4am this morning hoping for a greeting like Christmas ... lol ... instead she found us tucked into bed (mom having only gotten to bed 2 hours earlier) sound asleep - at least until we heard her cough.

Then trying to get her back to sleep was impossible -- and just as impossible for us ... she was sooooo excited, and since hubby is one of those damned morning people he was charged by her energy ... and then there just was no getting back to bed --- got to move, got to go, got to hurry.

Geez ... 9 yrs ago I had to get up early and now I've had to get up early yet again. geez.

I still need to wrap her gifts and make her cake ... figure out what to do for frosting since someone ate the frosting out of the container I had and didn't fridge it afterwards (I have my suspicions).

We got her lots of stuff from American Girls for her Springfield Collection doll -- Amanda -- for those who aren't familiar with the Springfield collection, its very much like the American Girls but on the cheap ... the bodies aren't quite as nice, and you don't have a choice of hair/eye/skin color combinations, nor do they have quite as nice hair, and they don't have posible arms/legs ... but they are about 1/4 the $$!

But American girls was having a nice sale going on to promote the release of 'Kit Kittridge' the movie ... so every week for, oh I don't know how long, they had new items on sale - and for a really good discount. So I got her a bunch of stuff.

But I will have to hold some back for Christmas/Yule as well ...

Guess what I got to do Today???

Oldest daughter was home sick. She had gone back to school yesterday after being home for two days and even volunteered at th local Girl Scout Round-up night but wouldn't you know it ... by the end of the night she was relapsing.

By the time we got home she was having a tough time standing without feeling like she was going to fall over ... no fever just tons of dizziness ... lay her down or even sit for a bit and she would be fine to go on. But it really concerned me when she took a drink from her gatorade bottle (dr had recommended Gatorade to replace electrolytes she may have been losing - we think the dr believes she dieting which she is not) ... anywho ... she was taking a swig while walking from the kitchen to the hallway when she 'blacked out'.

I thought it was just her eyes adjusting but she said no it wasn't that - she's had that happen and this wasn't it ... luckily she didn't have much left in her bottle so the mess was minimum (younger sister was walking up the steps at the same time and to say the floor is slippery when its wet would be like saying ice is a little viscous) ...

anyhow - what is really great is that I actually got some very quality knitting time -- YAH!! It also means that I am almost to the end of my partner's socks - haven't made up my mind whether that's good or bad yet. As was fun designing them, even if they were supersimple, and fun to learn to do two at once - no more SSS! but now I'm getting up to the tough part ... the toes. If I start too soon, the socks will be too small, starting too late would be preferred with this pattern though. I got some sock blockers for my anniversary so i can kind of gauge it - one set is the size of my partners foot.

Normally when I have one home sick I can't get anything done because they are 'mom' this and 'mo-0-0-0-m' that ... doesn't matter how old they get, they all love that feeling of being overly mothered when they are sick (the same thing they get on my case about when they are well).

But oldest son had day off from college and they spent the day challenging each other on the PS2 - he bought Madden football and they get to battle each other (he a Viking fan

VS.

, and she a Green Bay fan - don't know where we went wrong with her). As long as she laid on the couch and didn't get up she was fine ... laying on her stomach was fine ... standing and walking? she said it was like she was on a boat.

Got her into dr -- a virus shouldn't make her dizzy if she didnt have a fever to go with it. dr checked her white cell count(normal), checked her glands(normal), checked her ears ... etc. so its more blood tests. but her bp was a tad low -- I have the same issue sometimes.

but until I hear otherwise I will assume she is fine, and this too shall pass ... hopefully over the weekend.

and another one bites the dust ....

and another kid was home sick today, and will be tomorrow too. This time it was oldest daughter.
she is complaining of light-headedness, low-grade fever, dry throat while talking, non-productive throat cough, and lack of appetite.

Its a virus, but not the same as the other. At first we thought it was mono so hubby took her to drs this afternoon, but the symptomes are the exact opposite ... no mono - good thing.

Oh well ... we will be having lots of soup around here for a while. now I just need to talk oldest into stopping by and getting the Gatorade the dr "prescribed" tomorrow after his classes.

I hope she is feeling better by tomorrow night though -- she volunteered to help out at the Girl Scout round-up Thursday night ... and hubby says if she isn't feeling better by Thursday then we won't be going up to the cabin this weekend, but he wanted to get up to pull the boats and get out the boat lifts and stuff so we won't have to try to squeeze everything in two weeks from now -- although we have been doing everything in one weekend for 20 yrs now, why change now?

I want her to get better so that the kids will stop getting sick.

I don't have any Listerine either, just Scope ... I use it to soak their toothbrushes in to kill the germs when outbreaks like this flare up. Lysol does good on handles, knobs, and stair rails ... but it won't do well for things like tooth brushes, cups ... even the dishwasher can't get the dishes clean enough for my taste when they start getting sick over and over like this.

I just hope it doesn't decide to do a second round ... geez, I'd have to quarantine them to make it all go away!

Sick kid .... again

Well -- I have my youngest home with me again .... and true to what I figured no knitting yesterday. I thought I was going to be able to knit for a while but I was mistaken.

I even had the yarn, needles, and socks out of the bag and on the bed waiting to go. But after the fifth time of getting a lull and having the yarn wrapped for tension around my hand - and having it interrupted with "can I have ..." or "moooooooom" ... I confess, I gave up.

when she went to the dr I figured I could get some stitching done .... at least until Morpheus came and kissed my eyelids for 45 min. Now I'm all good for a little nap, about 15-30 minutes at most ... any longer and boom I've got a headache. Sure enough ... flaming headache. But nothing that a few cups of tea didn't cure. Of course, by the time that was taken care of --- whoosh all the kids were home.

She was back from dr.s office, and the two bickersons were back from school. And of course since ds2 had missed thurs & fri from last week he had super load of homework., and a take home test (well, it was only take home for him because he was sick ... but the test was open-notes anyways). and there was a 'read this article and write 10 things you learned' make up thingy. Anyways, he had enough homework to where my second chance for knitting was gone as well.

Too much homework to go to scouts ... actually it all came down to one work sheet. It wasn't like the sheets he's had before where he could find the stock answer in the book ... he had to infer the answers from what he read. Try to explain this to a 12 yr old who's main goal is to shove it in his bag so he can get together with his buds.

death nail to the evening was the emergency call that hubby got calling him into work at 6:45p ... he had to go, major computer crisis - at least it could have been very major .... no ride to scouts. no time alone for Mom to knit.

LOL .... oh who am I kidding .... I wouldn't have been able to knit anyhow. I still had the sick-one, the boy-crazy one, and the Where's-The-Freezer-Key one (otherwise known as "The Bottomless Pit").

My family just seems to have this naturally built in radar for when yarn touches my fingers ... especially hubby if we are in Walmart or Michael's. He makes it a point to know exactly where the A.S. section is in every store and he makes sure that I never go near it (although truth be known, those places really don't have anything that appeals to me anymore ... but the still won't get me over to 3 Little Kittens, that could prove fatal to the checking acct. & credit card)

Although on the bright side I have reached the .... well that's a seperate post.

The Good and The Bad

On the bright side -- hubby found the missing camera .... YAH!!!!! This means I am not a total nut job who doesn't care for very expensive toys. It means I'm not totally irresponsible and can be trusted with even the simplest of tasks ... which brings me to

The darker side of things .... I have another kid home sick today. My younger son is finally well and going back to school - he is fever free and back to normal...but not before passing the germs onto his younger sister - damn. So now my youngest is home with me today.

She's a sweetie and will be easy to keep occupied (there's a new floor puzzle she's been dying to get to do) but she is a Chatty-Kathy who will prevent me from knitting or listening to my 'At Knit's End' on disk (written & read by The Yarn Harlot) or my episodes of Poirot radio theater on my iTunes.

I will be busy today making toast, tea, giving meds, collecting tissues from the floor (because they just can't make it into the ice cream bucket that is there portable trashcan/spit bucket when sick), fixing soup which will be wanted by not really eaten because its too hot then too cold ....

It would be a perfect knit day to keep my hands busy and keep my mind at peace so I don't hide in the closet where the sick ones can't find me (no, don't worry - they all know my hiding places already .... there is no real escape) .... but then I get to have a day of my baby just a little longer.

I know -- haa haa --- even though its only a slim chance that there will be anything .... doctor's appt! No actually I was going to make one for her anyways - she has a fever of 101 so she is fighting off more than just sinus' - its just great chances that the dr will feel her neck, swab her throat, have the nurse take her vitals and then go 'hmm .... its a virus' and nothing will happen.

But then there's always the chance that its really strep ... sure would explain her brothering getting physically ill last week (his normal sign with a fever) .... and the sore throat I had before that ... but then these could all just be Fall colds too, as the weather gets colder at night but too warm during the day to pull the a/c units from the windows yet. see this is what I miss about central-air - much easier to go from heat at night/air during the day.

dang ... look at that ... off on a tangent. hee hee, I'm getting a little better though, heh?

but ... if I make it at just the right time (the dr. appt) ... i can get in about an hour's worth of peach & quiet & knitting - yes you read that right ... I am planning on having some tea while I'm knitting. Tea for me, not for a sick one. It won't have to be double sweet, tempid, and highly flavored. A nice subtle brewed peach sounds really good. Nothing with a lot of caffine, herbal will be better ... just a dash of sugar (1 tsp for a big cup) ... but we will see.

If her fever doesn't start going down with the Tylenol ... I may just insist on going anyways. If I could just get those sinus' to release i think she would feel so much better and the fever would break, at least mostly. But the cough has gone deep into her chest - well not deep enough to be bronchitis or pnuemonia ...

Man I hate it when the kids are sick. But still they are so cuddly, I kind of like it when the kids are sick.

Oops, spoke too soon. The two older siblings went off to school and she's popping down to steal the cable for the rest of the day ... she can cough & sneeze all she wants without people yelling at her "cover your mouth" (aww, c'mon ... you do it too and you know it) ... and she can cuddle under loads of blankets and if she gets too cold she can turn-on the fireplace (aw man, there's is absolutely nothing romantic about 'turning on the fireplace' is there? well I suppose its safer with kids though ... but the imagery just isn't the same).

Knit, not

Wednesday night I had a craving for 'chinese' food -- c'mon we all know what Americans call chinese food is about as chinese as fortune cookies -- so we had one of those 'open can and mix it up' Teriyaki chicken and some Chicken Fried Rice (from a box .... I was in such a lazy mood).
Well I don't know if there was something wrong with the Teriyaki chicken - which just looked jelled to me ... or if the Fried Rice was too spicy .... but I wound up with a sick kid and a pretty green hubby.

Although he was complaining that his stomach hurt Wednesday morning - so it may not have been completely my cookings fault.

Everyone else was fine ... well I had issues but then I always have issues if I drink my milk too fast or have a second cup, so I don't count .... but the kid with a very touchy stomach decided to redecorate the bathroom for me just before 11pm and didn't get onto the sick-cot until 1am ...

needless to say he stayed home from school yesterday ... and slept until after 12n -- you need to know this kid.

His day is spent complaining that he's hungry ... and trying to keep him into one spot for too long is kind of like herding cats, you can do it but its a challange .... he is usually up by 7am at the latest no matter when he gets to bed - unless he's sick. he's cuddly but not clingy .... and he loves picking on his sisters (big & little).

Yesterday he didn't complain about being hungry until nearly 4pm and wanted to know where I was at all times, and asked to do homework - I actually caught him studying for a test ... what kid does that? Actually he was running a low-grade fever, so most of it was to be expected - but studying? I wonder how long this is going to last?

Well I didn't get a lick of knitting done yesterday ... normally no matter how busy my day gets i can get in some knitting while waiting for my little one's bus to show up - little, she's in 3rd grade already - but yesterday I totally lost track of time and didn't get a single 1/2 row done.

I am keeping him home one more day - he still feels warm although the thermometer (one of those ear ones) is acting up and reading very low, it says my temp is 96*f even though I'm perfectly healthy, well fairly healthy ... better he should get back onto solid food at home, than have to start right off with cafeteria food.

of course were I a working mom I probably would be feeling totally different about this. Then I would have to send my little sack-o-germs back to school too soon. I feel really bad for working moms .... I don't know how I would handle the guilt. I would have to find a job that would allow me to work from home if the kids are sick .... of course, if I can't get my knitting done i don't know how I could get my work done.