Side effects may include …

Took a little trip to the ENT this morning … again. I'm sure I've mentioned before – we love our ENT. He is wonderful. Good thing, since we've been there a lot in the last 2 years. But we're not sure we quite enjoy the frequency with which we see him. This time it was Owen's turn. He's still battling the same ear infection he's had since the end of September, so we're headed down the tubes road with child #2. Hooray!

But, before we left, BJ asked the doctor if he should make another appointment for an ear issue he has been having (he saw him about 2 months ago). Being the wonderful doctor he is – and, I'm sure, realizing we're his best patients so he owes us – he went right ahead and took a look. We got out of there with a prescription for Owen, a date for Owen's surgery, and a prescription for BJ. A really fun prescription for BJ. Just take a look at the common side effects:

Yes, that says "feeling a whirling motion." And he has to take 6 pills on the first day. Woo hoo! What a ride! Actually … all those side effects together sound like a wild night at the bar … hmm …

Irony welcome here

After much waiting, a little pleading and hint-dropping, and a lot of patience, I have a smartphone. So now, like the rest of the world that doesn't have an iPhone, I have a crack - I mean, BLACK - berry. I love it. I have not let it loose charge once.

But, that's not what's ironic. See, part of this process, part of the delay, was simply that smartphone plans aren't cheap. BJ and I were heading towards the end of our phone contract and, well, it was cheap. Like, hold-over from the old days cheap. We had a family share plan with, get this, a whopping 300 minutes. And we maybe used 40 of those in a month. Combined. So the enormity of the plans I was looking at was giving BJ heart palpitations.

Finally, after quiet persistence (and, truly, research) on my part, he relented. But, we were going to drop our family plan, send me out on my own, and he was going to have work provide him a phone. Fair enough - if he wasn't calling me to say he was coming home from work, he was receiving texts from this server or that (or something - I don't really know). I figure he was just getting another phone. I mean, when he was ordering Blackberries for the staff at his work he went on and on about how he never wanted one of those things, people could reach him if they wanted, who needs email on a phone . . . Plus, at one point he said to me, "You don't need a data plan on it, right? You just want the calendar." What did he come home with? A Blackberry. A souped-up, my-phone-is-better-than-your-phone Curve 3900 or something.

But it doesn't stop there. Oh no. The man who threw fits when my friends would send me text messages, who didn't quite seem to see the wonders of the wireless data services . . . that guy? He's texting me, like, all the time*.

I feel a little smug.

*Totally an exaggeration. But, 15 times in 2 weeks doesn't sound very impressive. It would look impressive, though, if I graphed his texting behavior over a 2-year period.

MacGyver time

Whenever Shrek the Third came out, Zoe got a talking Shrek with her Happy Meal. At the time, she was afraid of it (even though she likes the movies). She's recently come to love Shrek, burping and all, so much so that his battery has died. Being a Happy Meal toy, it was not intended for it to be opened up. Did that stop BJ? Nah. He just unscrewed, and cracked the thing open (Shrek's arms and legs went flying) and got to the battery - three little watch batteries. Which, of course, we don't have. So he disconnected the whole thing, found some electrical tape, and rigged it up to a standard AA battery (he was going on about some science rule about volts and amps). And now, Shrek - armless, legless, backless Shrek - talks again!

Cleaning House

We've just cleaned our house. Top to bottom, even dusting the blinds. Everything's put away, everything shines, it smells good . . . and we did it all in one day. I need a nap.

See, we've recently (by our estimates) reached the 20% mark on our mortgage. That means we can get rid of PMI - hooray! But, per our mortgage contract, PMI isn't automatically removed once we reach 20%. It's automatically removed at a specified date, based on us making the minimium monthly payments. That's nearly 3 years off. UNLESS, we petition to have it removed and get some sort of appraisal stating we truly have paid off 20% of the home's value. BJ opted for a BPO. And, of course, he scheduled it for as soon as possible so we can get this done before our next mortgage payment. I love my husband.

His comment? "Now it's too clean!"

The Week of Milestones

Well, BJ marked his third decade with grace and peace, albeit a bit of grumbling about being "old" and "losing all his hair" and such. We ended up celebrating for 3 days straight. And this guy didn't want a party. It all started with fajita's at Don's, with bonus snow storm (reminiscent of the snow storm just a day after his birth??). I gave BJ a day to "play golf" (computer games), sans Zoe, before we had a babysitter come over so we could get dinner and a movie.

How long it had been since we had dinner and a movie, I couldn't tell you. But the babysitter was a milestone in and of itself - truly the first time we had a non-relative, someone we were paying, watch Zoe. I tell you what - working in a high school has its advantages. Namely that you can have your pick of adolescent babysitters and do a little "background check" to boot.

(We saw Cloverfield - I admit I got pretty motion sick. Ugh. Otherwise, it was great. Except the row of preadolescent nincompoops in front of us. I finally acted the teacher and told them to watch the movie or go out in the hall. Later BJ said, "I'm glad you said something. I was getting ready to kick their seats." A mature response for a 30-year-old.)

We rounded out the celebrations with a family dinner at Domo 77 - yummy Japanese steakhouse. Zoe loved the cooking at the table bit, as if you couldn't tell.


But the biggest deal this week was Zoe's first surgery. We had, essentially, the first slot of the morning on Tuesday, so we got Zoe up just before we had to leave. I really believe the worst part of the whole experience was explaining to the Eating Machine why she couldn't have breakfast that morning.

We had been talking about going to the hospital and the surgery for several days before, so by the time we left she knew we were going to the hospital where the doctors would make her ears feel better. I'll have to get the photo off my phone, because she looked just adorable - and quite grown up - in her hospital PJs. She's always been very curious about doctors, nurses, and the medical process, so she was pretty relaxed and calm each time a nurse or someone entered the room. When it was time for her to go, she walked out of the room and down the hall all by herself, next to the nurse. Cool as a cucumber and sweet as pie.

Fifteen minutes later, they wheeled her back in. When she woke up from the anesthesia we had to let the staff know. Usually kids cry and cary on when they wake up, they said, and didn't expect her to wake up groggy but calm. I swear, this kid is one tough cookie. Within 10 minutes, she was asking for a snack (also unusual, I guess). The whole thing was done in 2 hours, and she was back to herself (and at school) the next day. We're so proud of our little girl.

Now, getting her to comply with the ear drops for the next 2 weeks is another story . . .

Christmas Comes Early

Sunday afternoon BJ had had enough. He was stir crazy and wanted to get out of the house. "Where do you want to go? Somewhere inside? Somewhere outside?" I said. After a sardonic reply about spending money, he decided he'd like to go look at Expo and The Great Indoors to see if they had any lighting fixtures of interest.

You see, we have been on a mission to find a fixture to replace our kitchen fixture. There is nothing wrong with our current installation. Nothing excepting that it is ridiculously hideous. We have very specific requirements for our replacement - which, I must add, that I discovered my husband's particularity when it comes to home decor 4 years ago when he revealed the "dishwasher plan". At any rate, we have been completely unsuccessful in our quest, although we'd limited ourselves to the local home improvement giants. Menard's, Lowes (or "Lowells" if you're my father-in-law), and the Depot.

So, BJ suggested we do that, although thought the drive might be a bit much for our kiddo. Who had not been napping or sleeping well all weekend. Legitimate concern, but I was ready to get out, too. With more hours to kill than I'm used to, Zoe and I had actually exhausted all our play options. We all took our chances and set out.

And we found this:

While browsing for the kitchen light of our dreams, I saw this and said, "That would look awesome over our dining room table." It is true that a dismembered corpse would be an improvement over our existing "chandelier" , but this . . . this would be like a little slice of heaven beaming down on all our dinner guests (we have so many). We walked on by and continued our pursuit of the elusive kitchen light.

As we sat down to eat - at the nearby Olive Garden, no less (oh, how suburban) - BJ suggested we get the heavenly light fixture for ourselves and call it even for Christmas. I could have jumped up and down, I was so happy! To be this ecstatic about a lighting fixture seems silly to me, but seriously. Let's just say that my husband got lucky.

We never did find a kitchen fixture. If anyone out there has some great recommendations of places to look - brick & mortar retailers, online dealers, whatever. We have "modern mission" sensibilities, a requirement for a lot of wattage, it needs to be square, and not have any shiny brass* anywhere. Ideas?

*"Didn't you build this house?" you ask. "Didn't you pick your lighting fixtures to begin with?" Yes, we built the house. No, we didn't pick the fixtures. The builder wanted crazy money for anything other than the Builder Special shiny brass. Little did I know how awful they would be.

Is the week over, yet?

Once again, a string of random things today. See - I've been good about the posting every day bit. But each day that goes by - each step closer to the holidays, every inch nearer annual review season (work) - my brain grows ever more mush-like. I'm scatter-brained and I really don't like it. But it also means that I have not one coherent, original thought to blog. Blech. It's like the potatoes have been boiled and the chef is looming over them with a masher.

I just spent some time catching up with what's going on over at finslippy. Boy did that sound familiar. It reminded me of the pea-sized chunk of disappointment nestled down in the lower-left corner of my heart. It waved hello when I read Alice's post. But, moving along . . .

I just read that one of my sorority sisters recently gave birth to her second son! Owen Michael - I'll let her off that she totally used my boy's name since she didn't know (or did she?) and because, well, Owen is a kickin' boy's name. Congratulations Andrea, Chris and big brother Zach!

Last week I received one of the best compliments of my working career from my principal. I don't really want to go into what, just to say that it totally made my week (maybe my month) and renewed some of my spirit and energy. In education in general, but definitely in my profession, it is so often thankless what we do. It really brought home how much everyone needs to hear "Thanks - you're doing a great job," from time to time. Obviously, we don't do what we do for the money or the fame. But it's nice when someone notices your efforts.

Finally - holy crap, is being a working mom kicking my butt. I'm pooped, and I'd love to have a legitimate 2 weeks off like BJ is having right now. No work, no kid - just time to gather my thoughts, spend some time on things I find personally enjoyable, practice Guitar Hero . . . (Seriously - dude can kick my ass, now. It's disappointing.)

Reality

While sitting at dinner tonight, BJ said:

"To think - if it wasn't for her, we'd have an extra $1000 a month sitting in our pockets. It'd be like, 'Wanna go on a vacation?' 'Okay!'"

And yet, somehow, I don't really think that's how it would go even without a kid. It'd probably be like, "Wanna go on a vacation?" "Oh, I don't know. I'd really rather sit around the house and play computer games."

Before heading up to bed at 9:16 pm

Him: “We’re sad.”

Me: “No we’re not – we’re hard working parents.”

Him: “You’re a hard working parent.”

Ah . . . the sweet taste of validation.

 

Happy Mother's Day . . . to me!

A tad early (bonus points), I came home late Thursday night to find this on the kitchen table.

I just about cried. I did, in fact, tear up. More bonus points to the daddy of the house for coming up with this idea based only on a side comment I made while we were browsing The Growing Place.
Thank you, Zoë!

Better than sex?

I strolled in the house after work this afternoon, Zoe on my hip, and immediately noticed something was odd. The washing machine was running. There was a crisp, fresh scent in the air. Someone was in my house. As I exited the mud room, this is what met my eyes:




My house was immaculate! The floors vacuumed and mopped, the surfaces dust- and clutter-free, the appliances gleamed, and the open windows ushered in the crisp, spring air. Who could have done all this? It was BJ! After we both spent the better part of the week dying on the couch with a miserable cold, discussing at length what needed to be done before Zoe's party but lacking the energy to move, he decided to take the day off and clean. And clean he did. The first floor was only the beginning.

Seriously. Is there anything sexier than coming home from a long day at work to find your man - beads of perspiration dotting his forehead - vacuuming the bedroom?