Creeping Crud

The one bad thing about having lots of green plants outside is that it is guaranteed that my youngest son will get attacked by poison ivy each year. It started out about 4 days ago as a small line of tiny blisters. It got worse than I imagined. By evening it was worse than this photo. So tonight he tells me, “You said you’d take me to the doctor if it was worse today, so can you take me to the Minute Clinic”? You see, the thing is that for us the go-to doctor has turned into the Minute Clinic down the street inside the CVS. Yes, they have seen each and every one of us. Except for me, because as the mom I am not allowed to get sick.

It started out two fall seasons ago. My husband had a bad sore throat and was aching all over and we had heard about the Minute Clinic. So off he goes and returns shortly with a diagnosis of strep throat , an antibiotic in hand, and the receipt for me showing he paid our usual copay. (Side note: if an Rx is needed it is not required to be filled at that store. If needed, go for the $4.00 generic at Walmart, Kroger or Target, or free at Publix (there are 8 types they fill for free such as amoxicillin, and Cipro). I swear this is not an ad. I do get passionate about medical savings.

Same scenario of hubs’ strep occurrence and strep management four weeks later. And again 4 months later. I couldn’t believe it the first time he received a hand-written “Hope you are feeling better” card in the mail signed by the nurse at the Minute Clinic. My two older sons have been in to the Minute Clinic for strep tests as well. And last year we had our first (and am pretty sure not our last) visit to the ER when our youngest gashed his arm open and needed 6 staples. We were told to come back in 10 days for removal. But staple removal was a service the Minute Clinic could provide as well. And the boys have received Get Well cards in the mail too.

Tonight I took my 8 year old son down the street to the Minute Clinic because the Caladryl does not seem to be working and when he has large tears dripping out of those super long lashes I want to lay on the floor and cut off my own arm if it will just make him feel better. OK, that was dramatic but this boy hardly ever cries and likes to keep up with the older guys. Which is how he got the poison ivy. Tonight I asked, “When your older brother had his (13 year old) friends over the other night and you guys were all outside playing Manhunt, were you squeezing through bushes by any chance”? And he told me that he did hide under some leaves and stuff.

We braced ourselves for perhaps a dozen people at the CVS waiting for Swine Flu diagnosis. Nope, there was no one in line and the Rx cream was ready before I could even find the oatmeal bath powder and Benadryl.

I count our blessings that we are lucky in that we’ve not needed to have many visits with doctors and specialists. I am glad that my family has choices on where to go for these types of diagnosis’, and that we’ve had success with one of those choices. And I can tell you that poison ivy and my son will meet again this summer.

Road Trip Stories and the Next Generation

If you were to join my husband and me for dinner sometime you would see that he has a lot of stories to tell, and many about his life growing up. He has so many that he enjoys to tell that I sometimes kick him under the table to let him know to wind it up.

But I have to say I never get tired of hearing about his childhood family vacations in the station wagon with 6 kids, 2 adults, with all the luggage squished in except for that one coveted spot in the back where one kid would get to stretch out and lay till the next stop. I have had a couple of station wagon cross-country trips myself. My brother and I would hold up the peace sign while in the back facing the vehicle behind us. Or play Bingo with these cards on which you’d cover up your square if you’d see a silo, or a train. And I learned that if you were a boy you could pee in a cup if you had to go really bad.





My husband’s parents took their 6 kids up and down the East Coast many a time beginning when my husband (the youngest) was out of diapers. My husband may not remember last week’s conversations but he does remember details from these trips such as:

· For lunch they’d pull over to a rest stop and unload a cooler and two boxes for a complete lunch. Then later that night at the motel she’d cook dinner for 8 people using one pot and some type of burner and the entire motel would smell of their food.

· For breakfast who else remembers the Kellogg’s cereal in little boxes you’d open at the perforations, pull back the cardboard and wax paper and pour in your milk.

· When he was about 4 years old the family left him behind at a rest stop at the picnic table. They were five minutes down the highway before noticing. One brother knew but didn’t say anything. My hubs was still there, waiting, when they returned.

· Their highlight in New York City was throwing the tiny bars of soap from the hotel bathroom window and onto passersby below.

· Their highlight of smaller towns was ending the day at a motel pool. Their dad would pull into a motel at end of day to inquire if they had two adjoining rooms. He’d walk out of the office with a thumbs-up and they knew they’d be swimming.

· This memory is from his mom but he says it now explains why they looked like a bunch of ragamuffins in the trip photos. His mom would pack each of the kids’ oldest, worn out clothes for the trip. Each day she’d leave yesterday’s clothes behind in the motel. No dirty clothes to deal with.

· As the youngest my husband often had to ride in between his mom and dad in the front seat. He remembers his dad would sometimes sip from “a cold one” in a small, brown paper bag. There are no abuse problems here. For him it was like sipping on one Coke. We both find this amazing.

We have recently decided to create some Road Trip Memories for our boys, and for us. The most we’ve driven one way with our boys is 10 hours to our destination. They do really well and I swear we were the last family around to even buy just one portable dvd player. I heard my youngest son telling his brothers that they will REALLY be able to play the alphabet game on this trip. After the last couple years of wanting to, we are going to the Black Hills of South Dakota. And the Badlands. And Colorado. Which is a 21 hour drive. Which will be broken up by stays at a motel with pools.
I mentioned the other day that it may be near the same price if we flew and rented a car but my husband replied that it would not be a real road trip that way. And fortunately I agree.

I love hearing family road trip stories. What are yours?

My Feet Exposed

While visiting other people’s blogs over the past few months I have noticed that quite a few of you post pictures of your feet. And they look really nice, all pedicured and polished. I love me some polish too and I have a ton of nail polish colors in my bathroom drawer, but you will not see me posting a photo of my feet. Because I have a gargantuan sized big toe. I swear it's one third or one half an inch longer then the toe next to it. If it wasn’t for that I would so be in a size 7 rather than an 8.

A lot of people mention that their 2nd toe is longer than their big toe. I would honestly prefer that scenario over my big toe situation. Because it’s not just my long, large big toes that are the only issues. Just add some crooked toes to the visual. Yes, the three toes next to each of said mammoth toe look like they are all hitch-hiking in the opposite direction to get away from that big toe. The pinky toe? It is perfection. I could cover up the rest of my toes and photograph the hell out of my pinky toe.

The good thing is that for six months of the year I don’t think about my toes much because I wear closed toe shoes. But now the season has arrived when I can stop wearing the same pants and shoes and switch it up to skirts, capri's and sandals.

When I shoe shop, I of course look for a style to de-accentuate my faults. By covering up half of the toe length I feel there is some toe illusion happening. I keep hearing Tyra Banks' voice as she tells her model contestants, “You have to disguise your faults”. For example she herself poses flexing her leg muscles to give her legs more muscle tone. And she once had a model tuck a folded piece of paper inside her upper lip to make the lip look fuller. And then there are those posing tricks for short necks, strong jaw lines, and long torsos.

Last weekend I took my middle son to get a haircut and a do an errand for him and since we were Right There, I slipped into TJ Maxx because you know how it is never the same store twice. He was a good sport and stayed in the shoe aisle with me as I tried on about 17 pairs. I found these shoes that passed the Big Toe and Crooked Toes test:

And another example of scoring big

toe camou-

flage?

A shoe with extra material on the big toe. A few years ago I found these shoes below with the ties that go up the ankle (to maybe draw the eye upwards from the toe?). See that loop that goes around the big toe? I feel like it chops off some big toe length. I need to find more like these.

You can probably guess how I feel about pedicures? I don’t have them. I used to but I stress so why bother. I do them myself. I don’t want you to think I have gnarly toes in addition to my crooked toes.

On the other hand I do love having manicures. I did inherit some nice nail beds and long fingers. Every time I get a manicure I get complimented on my nail beds. And what’s interesting is they never make a comment to me…......about my crooked pinky fingers!

A Spontaneous Trip To See the Parthenon and How We Ended Up As Parents Who Rock

No, not the Parthenon in Greece, this one is just four hours away. In Nashville. A couple of weekends ago we decided on the spur of the moment to take the boys for a night to Tennesse to watch a college baseball game and just do a little getaway. The idea wasn't received very enthusiastically. The kids' Spring Break was just starting and they wanted to play with friends. "We wanted to go to the skatepark here", they grumbled. My youngest said, "How many stars does the hotel have?" I cracked up at that and asked where he heard that. On a Priceline TV commercial I was told.

Anyway, I ignored their protests or made some comment about my needs and they got on board. I made reservations at the Hampton Inn by Vanderbilt University and we made it just in the nick of time to check in and then walk through Vanderbilt University to their baseball stadium. Last year and the year before my husband and I did this very same thing alone (we find someone to watch the boys for us about once every two years and no I am not exaggerating).

We arrive and see the stadium is only half full and the game is just starting. We get to the ticket booth and they are SOLD OUT. What? This has never happened before. We were shocked. The boys stared at us like we were Clark and Ellen Griswald. I only felt a little better after I saw many others arriving and complaining about this situation too. No, they would not let us in even at half-time. We noticed a lot of Boy Scouts in attendance and then The Husband sees a older Scout man with a wad of tickets in his hand. Yep, he had a ton--I think the scouts bought the entire outfield. So we were able to buy 5 tickets and redeem ourselves to our children. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves. Actually an hour later there were complaints of being bored but they were ignored.

I used to travel to Nasville occasionally for business. This was 13 years ago before kids. I would stay at a hotel right across from the Parthenon. It is spectacular all lit up at night. Sort of more spectacular than during the day. But I did finally get to visit it the next day. It was built almost 100 years ago. Before this structure it was a temporary structure built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition. I love learning these historical details and seeing photos of how cities once looked. You know the ones that show old buildings and homes and businesses on a certain street and then seeing the same street with the newer (uglier) buildings.

Our two oldest sons brought along their skateboards on our one-night spontaneous getaway in case we found a good opportunity to use them. They didn’t use them much while in Nashville other than the hotel parking lot. On Sunday after visiting the Parthenon we headed back home. As we were approaching Chattanooga I suggested that we stop somewhere for lunch. There was an exit near downtown that seemed right so we pulled off. What was right next to the highway? A skate park. There was cheering from the back of the vehicle.

We registered the boys (signed away our rights in case they crashed their bodies like those characters on the skateboard video games) and then headed down the street to the Subway to bring back lunch goodies. We ended up hanging out for about three hours. The weather was really nice. I took a bunch of photos and our youngest son who doesn’t skate took even more pictures. Well, he once skateboarded into a "bowl" after his brother told him to and he fell down and got turned off from falling. He told us he wants to be his brothers’ skate action photographer. For real as his career.

So he then took a bunch of photos. I assumed that later that we’d have to delete all of his. Wrong. It was my photos that we had to delete. So here are two that the family Skateboard Photographer took. It was nice to end the weekend as being really cool parents.

Going, Going, Gone. I think I boiled too many eggs.

My oldest son will be turning 13 soon and didn't want to color eggs today. I asked him if he still wanted an Easter basket. That would be yes, but he went out the door to play with friends. The middle one colored one egg and then found a show on TV called Teen Cribs that shows families in ginormous houses with amenities galore. (Update: he returned later to color about 5 more eggs).

My youngest son is still a fan of the whole coloring process. He waited with me for the water to boil and he added the vinegar and the food color. I did about 12 eggs and he has done about 14. So after being creative with these, we've left a few more resting in colored water to get the color as dark as possible. Growing up my husband received an Easter basket every year until college age (and he is the youngest of 6). I don't think I received very many Easter baskets at all. Although I do recall the first year after college I received one from my mom with placemats in it and things for my apt.

My brother and I would search for hidden hardboiled colored eggs and this is a tradition I've brought to our family. Each Easter morning my husband takes the colored hardboiled eggs (I'm the one who knows how many are out there) and hides them in the front and backyard. It then becomes a serious competition to find them. Another tradition that my husband shares is having to find yout hidden Easter basket on Easter morning. The Easter basket hiding spots are getting more challenging for them each year. One year a coveted basket was located in the dryer.

This year the boys' Grandma has sent a video game for them to share as a gift. We are going to up the ante on the search skills. Tonight we'll make up clues to lead them from one spot to another till they find the booty.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday traditions!

It's a Pink Moon

This month's full moon on April 9th is the Pink Moon.

We Each Do What We Do Best

Husband's Morning Routine:
--gets up and showers
--sed
--kisses me goodbye as I hand him his lunch
--he gathers his wallet, keys, phone which are hopefully in sight

My Morning Routine:
--get up and make sure middle son is getting ready (he’s up first in house)
--get cereal or Eggos ready for youngest son
--make lunches usually for 5 people
--make sure middle son has everything needed, toss afternoon snack at him as they leave
--wipe youngest son’s glasses
--get his shoes from garage and help him get them on while watching clock
--drive youngest son in car to bus stop and wait because am still in pajamas and/or don’t feel like walking (he could go with husband but we like the extra 20 mins together)
--back in kitchen I now make coffee
--turn dryer on again because clothes from last night are not dry
--make oldest son’s lunch
--check email and look at blogs and comment
--wake up oldest son
--sometimes make oldest son’s breakfast but usually does it
--fold dry clothes and put back in appropriate basket
--clean up kitchen that looks like a warzone
--prep some food for dinner—may involve crockpot
--grab bills to pay at work
--talk with oldest son and sometimes quiz him on school work
--I now have 12 minutes to shower and dress
--sometimes iron shirt for son and maybe my own clothes
--I now have 8 minutes to shower and dress
--say goodbye to son who walks up the street for the school bus
--drive to work and do mascara at red lights.
(am very thankful for my job and this routine at home as it has not always been like this) )