Slow Business...

I received an e-mail the other day from my friend, Arlene -someone I've know since 1st grade and who lives down in Georgia now -reminding me that she checked my blog and I hadn't (at that time) posted anything all last week.

I really didn't realize at the time it had been that long and now, here I am posting after almost a two week hiatus. Boy, where did the time go, anyway?

Last week was a bit hectic though. Maya had practice for the play on Tuesday and Wednesday evening; Thursday night was dress rehearsal and Friday night was the "Opening Night" performance. In the midst of all that practice, she was still having issues with the sinus infection along with ups and downs in the fever department too. Friday evening, Mandy wasn't sure whether or not to even take her in and let her perform because the fever had started to rise again. However, Maya was insistent that she felt okay and kind of the "show must go on" routine began to play out here at home then too from Miss Maya. So Mandy conceded and away they went.

To Maya's credit, she did do fine and dandy! We were a bit concerned that although we knew that she knew the entire dialogue and music for the play that once on stage and with the auditorium filled with people, she might develop a bit of stage fright but she apparently wasn't phased in the least by that!

She was so excited when they came home even though by then her temperature had risen to 103 and Mandy called the nurse's line. The nurse advised her to take her Saturday a.m. to the emergency room because after a week on the antibiotics, for the fever to keep recurring just wasn't right.

So, Saturday a.m., Mandy took her to the E.R. and that doctor requested a chest x-ray -which we had cautioned Maya beforehand that they might do that. Initially, she was really frightened by that idea of an x-ray until everyone (and their brother too I think) took it on themselves to offer reassurances to her that x-rays are nothing to be afraid of -just pictures taken on the outside but they show what's going on in the inside of your body -so when they did do an x-ray, Mandy said she handled it with no sweat! That doctor determined from the x-ray that she was on the verge of developing pneumonia and gave her another antibiotic.

Saturday afternoon and evening was the only time Maya was really noticeably not feeling well -very, very lethargic, for openers -and clingy, which she usually isn't. Mandy definitely kept her home from performing in the play that night and though she was a bit upset initially, she may have finally realized that she really wasn't up to being the best little mouse on the block that evening.

Finally, Saturday evening, the fever began to break and she started to sweat like crazy and also, to cool down considerably. Sunday, she was almost back completely to normal -thankfully!

Monday, Mandy took her to her regular doctor for a checkup and upon learning of the events of the weekend, he decided to change his diagnosis to "just a case of the flu!" REALLY? I don't think what she had was the flu -no way! But, anyway, she was back in school on Tuesday and her normal ornery self since then!

I had hoped to get some still pictures as well as maybe a little video or two of her in the play to post here but sadly, the three videos Mandy took Friday night didn't turn out very well at all. Half way through each of them, the video portion stopped moving and the sound got very unstable too which was very disappointing for me since I didn't go to the play Friday night but rather, stayed home with Kurtis. The plan had been for me to go on Saturday night with Mandy and we would take Kurtis with us then so there would have been two of us then to handle him in case he got contrary or some such. But as it turned out, we didn't have to worry about how he might act so will have to wait until the next play that Maya is going to audition for -"The Jungle Book" - coming this spring I believe (or maybe it is early Summer?).

I've been working really hard -long, long hours, believe me -on the tablecloth project I'm doing now. This one has a spray of 3 pansies in each corner with 2 or 3 single pansies along each edge and then, in the center, there are two sprays of 3 pansies plus 2 single pansies. And boy, these flowers are really, really, REALLY time-consuming to complete!

I takes me anywhere from 2 1/2 hours to as high as 4 hours to complete one pansy! And, considering there are a total of 30 pansies to be embroidered -all in satin stitching too -(4 colors to each flower), working at that pace -even if I manage to complete one flower in 2 1/2 hours, that would still calculate to about at least 75 hours of work involved in getting this piece completed! Breaking that down to working a max of 5 hours per day, that would mean the fastest I can get this done would be 15 days, tops! And I don't see me being able to put that many hours in per day to begin with so just cross your fingers and hope I manage to finish it by the end of March at the latest!

Friday, I had to go to Clearfield to the cancer clinic for my monthly appointment to have my port flushed out and then, yesterday, had to go to the hospital for a routine check-up CAT scan. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and the roads weren't all that bad on Friday and yesterday, the weather was fine and dandy.

We've devised a way now so that Mandy and I do have access most of the week now to my jeep and a darned good thing we got things organized to do that too or we'd have had a lot of rushing around if she would have had to take me to my appointments last week and this week and then, still managed to get Kurtis to his school programs on time too!

This week, we're back down to only one vehicle again but that's because Mandy has her car in the shop having some work done to it and tomorrow, Ken is supposed to take my jeep and put new brakes on it for me too. So then, at least we should have both vehicles functioning at least semi-properly! I really need to find a way to conjure up around $250 so I can get a new gas tank on the jeep -which would also give me a gas gauge that works the way it's supposed to do too then! That would really be nice to have a vehicle that actually shows you how much -or roughly so -gas you have in the tank, ya know!

And now, because my eyes don't want to stay open much longer plus, there really hasn't been much in the way of stuff happening here lately for me to write about, I think I'll turn in a bit early tonight!

Besides, my bed buddy returned to sleeping with me again tonight -along with both her pillow pets too that I get to share my little twin bed with a 7-year-old and two over-sized pillows now!

Oh, and there was one little goodie that happened yesterday to Kurtis that you might appreciate.

Seems his teacher was getting a box or something out of a cupboard at school and didn't realize Kurtis was standing right beside her until she got the box down and turned quickly, bumping him in the head with the box.

He went over and told his TSS (aide) at school that "The teacher hit me on the head with the box. What the heck?" When Mandy repeated this story to me after the teacher phoned to tell her what had happened, we both laughed and said "Well, at least he didn't finish his little tale to the TSS by saying 'What the Hell?' - so I guess we can consider ourselves lucky with that one, can't we?

Night all. Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite, as an old neighbor of ours always used to say.