Are You Washed?

Guests. Coming. Coming here. Tomorrow morning. My husband leaves tomorrow for his annual "guy trip. His friends are coming by to get him and that means I spend most of today cleaning. Just how I was raised. When company is coming, clean. They won't be here long, and the bathroom will be the room they see the most I imagine. However, after getting up at 4am (there's my excuse for these ramblings & deep thoughts) today and waiting on the second school bus to come, I thought I'd start the cleaning process while I still had energy.

I started dusting shelves. This is pretty monumental because I pride myself on high shelves simply so I don't have to dust often. But, one of the friends coming IS rather tall. Hence the need for dusting. After I'm done with the kitchen, I realize there are some splatters on the long wall in the kitchen. I better wipe/scrub those off. Nothing says "I never clean." like tomato sauce on the wall. As I spray the area down with cleaner & start scrubbing, I see more splatters & dirty areas further out. I keep wiping the wall. My arm hurts, my hand is cramping and I'm getting a little light headed. (this sinus stuff doesn't like it when you bend over) Surely there aren't more dirty areas...right? Man! Where did this stuff come from?! It doesn't help this wall is textured. I guess we did move in here 4 or 5 years ago. Hmmm, I don't remember cleaning it much since then. Except for the occasional, OBVIOUS splatter. Two kids in high chairs on this wall in that time. I gueeeesss I could see where it might accumulate some dirty areas in that amount of time. I'm shocked. Really. I've had people in here. Albeit very few, but still. Why hasn't anyone TOLD me how dirty this wall is!? You're right, I would have cried. Don't tell me. I keep scrubbing & scrubbing and there are just more & more areas that need to be cleaned off. Up, down, the light sockets, and plug-ins. By the time I'm done cleaning the dirty areas & splatters, the WHOLE, LONG wall received a cleaning. Wow.

While I kept scrubbing and wondering if my arm would fall off before my hand cramped up & stuck in that position, I was thinking. Life. Isn't it sort of like this giant, white, textured wall?
You go along happy & fine, living your life and then one day, there's some areas that need attention. No clue how they piled up like this. And who knows how long it took to happen. You don't really have time to look back at them ALL, just time enough to take care of a few things today. But then, once you start looking at those areas that need attention, you realize, ALL the areas sort of need a sorting out. They all tie into together to be one giant thing called LIFE.

So what if son#2 gets me up at 4am today? And that it seems to be an every other day occurrence anymore. Then there's son #1 who functions well in theory but really may need some medicine to help de-Monk-defy him so he can function with focus. The baby needs a physical therapist for his legs. We all need to see the dentist. Then there's hubbo who's making me a single parent this weekend by leaving town.

Acts 3:19 says: "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;" (New American Standard)

Frankie Says RELAX!!

After a very stressful start to school this past couple of weeks, I was more than missing my knitting because it provides an outlet for all that energy that's not allowed (legally) to be let out on things or people (i.e., school nurses).

Although the weather is cooling off today (we're down to the 90's) I doubt we'll be needing scarves, mittens & hats anytime soon. BUT, a knitted item can bring with it's love, warmth & stress relief. I got a wonderful box today in the mail from my summer exchange knitting buddy. A coaster, a knitting magazine (my favorite one!), stitche markers, chocolate and a set of matching tam & mittens! Oh and the most beautiful turquoise blue cowl!! Having started today with a migraine, I was needing this care package. It couldn't have been better timing! ThankCheryl in Maine!!! You're super talented & the thought of including some yarn for ME to play with & the extra yarn from what you knit me, well that kind of thoughtfullness is very rare. You're a sweetie & I promise to give them good homes.

Now I have relaxed by finishing up a scarf for my #1 son who loves school buses. He knows every kind of bus & it's uncanny how he can tell you from FAR away which kind it is. There are "I" buses, Carpenter buses, Thomas buses (a couple others I can't remember) and Bluebird buses which are his favorites. And he could not be happier after spending a year on a Thomas bus, to be back on a big ol' Bluebird bus this year.


Although, this isn't knit for warmth, it's defintely fun & I think he'll love it. I should felt a piece of black & cut out the Bluebird logo, but I'm lazy & need to get to more unfinished knitting, so this will have to do for now.

My friend Terry wrote the pattern for me, so watch her site for the pattern to appear in her free pattern section at the bottom.;)

End Run

(American football) an attempt to advance the ball by running around the end of the line

As football season fast approaches I'd like to teach you a term. It's called doing an end run. Say that with me, "END RUN". Good. Now, let me tell you how a mom can apply this term and it's logistics to every day life & situations.

Here we are on the third day of school. The day before school started, when I went to meet the teacher I took son#2's meds with me to show them how I administer it, what it looks like & fill out forms that I knew existed to have the school give him some of his meds this year.

This medicine is like those foam packing peanuts that dissolve in water. That means it's not that easy to cut & the dose of meds we are on right now, means we have to halve them. Also, the stupid companies that make this med only let you have the melt-tab in .5mg & 1mg doses. Therefore, for son#2's new dose of .75mg three times a day, we're slicing & dicing this bad boy.

Wednesday at school I tell the teacher we're finally at a point where son#2 will need to be given meds at school in the afternoons. She takes me in person to the nurses office for the forms to fill out. I show the nurse the pills (I've already halved & stuck back in one of the two blister packs) and how I place them in son#2's mouth/tongue. She gives me the forms, I explain about how you need a very sharp knife to halve them & I'll most likely just send them already cut.

Go home, spend the night gathering $75 in school supplies, packing their stuff up, filing out papers and making sure it's all together for the first day of school. I get an old film canister to put the meds in for son#2 & use a Sharpie to write his name on the bottle. This will be better than sending them in a ziplock since they can get crushed & then would be useless. Oh I better mention that the first day of school hubbo stayed home to take our car into to have the a/c fixed (which turned out to be done to the tune of $480) so this was already a nice hectic, fun day at our household.

I believe the first call of the 15 from the school was around 10am. Turns out according to the nurse, that you can't send already cut meds. They HAVE to cut them there in the nurses office. Oh and you HAVE to have the Rx label to be able to even GIVE the children their meds. My reaction wasn't panic, yet. I jumped into Mommy-mode, grabbed my cape and started calling the pharmacy, doctor office and back to the school nurse.

me: "I have no car today, it's in the shop. Can the pharmacy fax you the label from his medicine? They give it to me in ziplocks."

nurse: "No. It HAS to be the actual, real Rx label."

me: "Oook. And I have to send brand new pills for YOU to cut them, right?"

nurse:"Yes. And make sure the .5mg & 1mg are in the correct ziplocks respectively or I can't give them to him."

me: "Okay, I'll get back to you."

During all this time I'm receiving all these calls from the higher ups whoever they are, above the school nurse. They are sorry, they can't help it. It's all policy. They've been to court with pharmacies & this is just how it is. Wished they could help me. I run across the street to catch a neighbor off to do errands and thrust the now empty ziplocks at him. He takes them the 10 blocks to the school & drops them off.

Another call from the school...

nurse: "Once I cut these pills, I'll have to throw away the other halves because I'm not allowed to repackage them-that would make us a pharmacy. They are considered waste."

me: "Uh no.... I don't think so. Those cost a lot of money & we are only allowed so many a month. I'll walk there every day & give them to him myself if you are going to HAVE to throw them away."

nurse: "Let me see what I can come up with. I'll call ya back."

They ended up deciding they could bend the rules a little & allow the "waste" to be sent home in an envelope to us to use here. Isn't that nice of them? At 1:20pm they call me AGAIN.

nurse: "Ms Swaim? We aren't allowed to touch Carson's mouth to give him this pill."

me: "Excuse me? Didn't you WATCH me give them to him yesterday IN your office?"

nurse:"Well, yes. But..."

me: "Can you lay it on the counter for him to pick up & take then?"

nurse: "Well, not really, that's contamination. Let me call someone & ask."

me: "My husband just came home, I'm on my way there now."

I brought a spoon with me too. It was a long shot but it might work. When I got there I also asked them to lay the pill on a paper towel on the countertop. She called the higher ups again. The paper towel would be okay. But, by this time, it was WAY past son#2's time to take his meds & we were treading into the gray area of the point of no return in meltdowns.

I met his teacher in the hallway because I could HEAR him coming. The nurse runs out to meet me & says I can not give him meds in the hallway or anywhere else, ONLY IN HER OFFICE. Did I mention it's smaller than my bathroom? So off we go, I give him the meds, walk him back to the gross motor room with all the swings, fun stuff and such, to wait him out & see if the meds can kick the meltdown. It did, 30 minutes later. Did I mention that was the first day of school?

Of course the main issue was going to be that eventually there won't be any NEW blister packs for them to open. They'll just be halves, and they can't GIVE halves, so we'd have to go there every one of those days to give him his pill ourselves. I had called the doctors office when I got back home from school. They suggested bumping it up to just a 1mg at school. I was really worried he'd get too tired/sleepy with it. Luckily the pharmacist at Wal-Greens came up with an end run. Thought I'd forgotten my point didn't ya??

God bless this man! (and I do plan to make him some brownies) He called me later Friday afternoon with the idea of making up a fake bottle with a fake label on it. It'll say that son#2 can have a .5mg (one whole pill they won't have to cut) in the afternoon. Then when he gets home a couple hours later, I can give him the rest of that .75mg dose (.25mg at home) GENIUS! It might just work. Fool them with a run around the end of their line!!! I love it! I'm ready to do anything at this point. And the fact that HE thought of it & was just as frustrated as me....I really wanted to kiss that man-white bushy moustache & all.

I picked up the bottle yesterday & sent it to school today with a school weeks worth of meds in it for son#2. Of course first thing this morning, the nurse calls. I have NEW paperwork to fill out. I have her fax it to hubbo so he can jump in this redtape fiasco with me. We don't want him feeling left out do we? And of course the nurse lets me know up front, "I can't give him his meds until I have this NEW form with the NEW dose on it." Sigh! I help hubbo fill it out, we fax it back but he gets a note saying "transmission not recieved". LOVELY! I call her, nope she didn't get it. I ask for her fax number again. Write it out for hubbo....it doesn't match the one on the form she had sent to us. She'd written where to fax it back to her at, with the wrong fax number. I ask you, WHO is special needs here????

I plan to use as many end runs as I need with this school until my son (both of them) get what they need. And maybe, just maybe, this nurse will get some "special brownies" from me at Christmas. There's no doubt in my mind Paula Deen would approve. Cause ya know...Ex-Lax can look just like shaved chocolate on top.;)