Back to Basics

As in walking, sitting, reaching. Those basics. The ones I couldn't do after yesterday's fall down the stairs. Today I'm sporting a few nasty abrasions and bruises, but I feel much better. Nothing broken except my ego. Because of course, Hubs was there to see this colossal FAIL of stairwalking. After all was said and done, he asked me kindly to never do that again, as seeing me get hurt almost killed him.
I just love it when he thinks of himself in these situations ;)

Looks as Bad as it Feels

This morning while rushing out of the house carrying 1) my heavy book bag for school and 2) a big, steaming cup of coffee and 3) Hubs' jacket to be dry cleaned....
I slipped down the wet back stairs. Feels like I went totally airborn before the weight of my bag helped slam me into the stairs. Then of course I slid down the remaining stairs, and lay in a crouched, crumpled heap at the bottom.
Now I'm at work, in terrible pain. My ribs hurt when I breathe. I can't even lean back in my chair.
There's no way I'll make it to school tonight, so sit for an extra 3 hours in a hard, plastic chair.
I just want to go home :(

DIY Dog Healing

My little man if feeling better now. *Whew!*
Wait….
Now my dog is sick. My 75lb baby. He wasn’t acting like himself. He was kind of down. Maybe I’m projecting human feelings on him, I don’t know. Then he started throwing up. Then yesterday he didn’t want to eat. I sat up with him half the night, cleaning up puke, coaxing him to drink water, and reading online about DIY dog fixing. Gave him some maple syrup, because one site suggested his shivering may have been due to hypoglycemia from not eating. He threw that up. On my bed.
This morning Hubs took him into the vet, because seriously, I threw a tennis ball and he just watched it go. Now you KNOW that means he doesn’t feel well. So he’s there, and they’re keeping him overnight.
OVER. NIGHT.
My poor dog!! He’s going to be so sad! What if he freaks out? What if he thinks I’ve left him??

Eva, on the other hand, is living it up. She’s getting all the food and treats that Ilio doesn’t want, and she’s tossing around a pair of brand new tennis balls that she’s got all to herself.

Making it in the Big City

I'm having a rough week, fellow bloggers. At a crossroads, and don't know which way to go. Feeling a bit crapped on. Feel like yelling out, "It's just not fair!", but know it won't change anything.
As you know, I'm one of the 700,000 people who lost their jobs in January. I'm thankful to have found another one, but it comes at a great decrease in salary. My husband worked a lot of overtime to make up for the shortfall, but the City of Chicago has recently stopped paying overtime. With the recent increase in property taxes, we've now reached a point where it's very hard to afford our home. We live in a modest home, in a modest area. Nothing fancy. No marble bathrooms. No 3 acres. We're told that our property value hasn't declined, but foreclosed homes are selling like hotcakes around here, for far less than we owe on ours. If we sell, we may walk away with nothing. That's if we can sell at all.
If we stay, we will run into problems the next time something major comes up - maybe a plumbing emergency, or a car problem. We are truly in that unpleasant situation where we can't afford to stay, and can't afford to leave.
This is my first home. As in, I lived in apartments my whole life. Moved around a lot. I don't want to do that to my kids. We've been here almost 5 years, and that's the longest I've ever lived in one place. I played by the rules, did my part, and still come out behind. The Making Home Affordable program seemed like it might help us. But you know what? We're $11 under their criteria to qualify. Eleven. Fucking. Dollars.

If we could sell, and move into something smaller, more affordable, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

But it's never that simple, is it?

She's WHAT?!

Yesterday I was informed by a parent at the school that a girl in Daimean’s 6th grade class is going around telling people she’s pregnant. So I called the school and talked to the teacher and she said, “Oh, she’s still saying that?!”

STILL?????

It’s going to be a long school year.

Turns out the teacher has already made the girl's mother aware of this, and thought the whole thing had been put behind them. Good lord.

Children and Narcotics

The Belly tested negative for bacterial stuff at the doctor's office. The doctor checked his ears and lungs, all clear. Her conclusion?
"Is this influenza? Probably. H1N1? Possibly. Some kind virus? Definitely."
She didn't test him for H1N1 though, which didn't even occur to me until after we left her office.
What she did give him was cough medicine with codeine. I'm very skeptical about narcotics and kids. It makes me nervous. She gave me the script and told me to think about it, and said that at the very least it would quiet his cough enough to let him get some sleep. At the end of the day, I got it filled. It backfired, I think. He certainly felt better for a little while. He beat up his dad for stealing his Skittles, then got into a tickle fight with his brother. Then he went up and jumped on my bed for a while. He did get some sleep last night, even if he tossed and turned all night, keeping ME awake.
The dr gave a refill on the cough syrup - is that for the Mom that isn't getting any sleep?!

Let's Talk About...

Let’s talk for a moment about sick kids. A sick child is the WORST thing in the world. Of course, that kind of goes without saying, unless you have Munchhausen by Proxy, that you don’t ever want to see your child sick or hurting.
Isaiah’s been sick for a few days, and he’s not getting better. He’s seeing the doctor today. Is it just me, or does it always seem to get worse over the weekend, when your doctor ISN’T in the office? She’s very responsive by phone though, so we’ve already been giving her status checks.
Last week he had the sniffles, then got a flu shot, then got full blown SICK. Fever, coughing, sneezing, throwing up, nosebleed…… He’s just miserable. Last night he ran a fever, had the chills. When he’s awake, he’s coughing.

This. Is. Terrifying.

On one hand, I tell myself that kids get sick. It happens. Every year they catch a cold, or the flu, and they get sick but they get better. Then again, there are all kinds of crazy viral things just floating around and causing major complications. Maybe I’m buying into the whole H1N1 panic. I don’t know. All I know is that my little guy has been sick for days and isn’t getting better.