The dreaded 38

So it's now official, I am 38 years old. I have been dreading this number for months now! I almost wished I could skip over 38 and go right to 39, that's how much I dread it. Within the last year or so, I have found that so many people listed in the obituaries have been 38 years old. I don't know about you, but I think 38 is a bit too young to die. I don't know why 38 has been popping up so frequently lately, but it scares me. Obviously, I'm not the picture of perfect health which just adds to my fear. I have a whole anxiety issue with dying as it is, now I just have to pile this one on top of it. It's going to be a looooong year, that is if I make it through.

So here I am, 38 years old, dreading it, fearing it, hoping it's not my time. How's that for a somber note on Monday morning!

My poor boy

Oh what a day! Tomorrow is J's 5th birthday, but because both kids have soccer games tomorrow, we had J's party today. He was so excited about his birthday and has been counting down the days for weeks now. The party went well, but the day didn't turn out on a such a high note.

Friday night, we went to the circus. I noticed that J started coughing quite frequently at the circus. Literally ever minute or so he'd let out a cough. It was late when we got home and he was just exhausted. He went to bed, refusing to take any cough medicine. I didn't worry though because we have a whole plethora of medicines--including the quick melt strips. I figured after he had fallen asleep, we will wake him and while he's groggy, give him a strip with some water & he'll be covered & none the wiser. (we've done this before ) Anyway, dh & I go into his bedroom to give him the strip and find he is sleeping away, covered in vomit! Can you believe it didn't wake him up?? Can you believe we never heard him vomiting?? So of course we wake him, clean him, strip the bed, etc. (that whole looooong process!) Now obviously, he's awake and refuses to take the strip. Fine. He coughs on & off throughout the night.

This morning, he sleeps until 8 am, which is LATE for him. He's a little quiet, but happy it's his party day and happy to open gifts from dh, O & I. We begin party preparations. He's still not quite himself, but not coughing quite as much as he was the night before. The guests arrive, his "favorite cousin" arrives and they go off and play together. When the food was ready, he ate just a little (very odd), coughing the whole time. When it was cake time, he ate just a little, coughing the whole time. When it was present time, he barely cracked a smile at any of his gifts and mind you, coughed the whole time. It had finally gotten to the point where everyone was looking at us as the neglectful parents (not really, but you get the idea)

We decide to leave everyone at our house (it was all family) and take J to Urgent Care. He's still coughing and now in the car, I'm beginning to hear a wheeze after each cough. The nurse checks him out, ask lots of questions, and then does his oxygen intake. The norm for his age is 96-97 and his intake was only 93-94. He has no fever. The doctor comes in, more talk & questions, and it's decided he has asthma. She tells us that they don't diagnose asthma right off the bat, they call it "restricted airways" until more tests are done, but pretty much, it's asthma. She gave him a treatment with a nebulizer, which helped quite a bit, at least the coughing ceased for awhile, then she made a mistake. She gave him liquid Prednisone, which he proceeded to vomit all over! She then switched to Prednisone in tablet form and oddly enough, he swallowed all five pills. She follows up with another nebulizer treatment and he was really doing well....a little nutty perhaps, but feeling much better. The nurse puts in a call to a supply company who will meet us at home and provide us with a nebulizer. She gave us 3 prescriptions to fill and we were on our way.

He's been much better since we got home, hardly coughed at all (although I am hearing him cough a bit now as I type this). We have to follow up with his pediatrician, but I feel so bad for him. I hope he doesn't have to take the Prednisone for an extended period of time (Prednisone is nasty stuff) or do the nebulizer treatments 3 times a day for years and years.

My poor boy...all of this on the day of his birthday party.

When I grow up...

After watching Dancing with the Stars for the past several weeks, I have finally decided what I want to be when I grow up! I'm going to be a ballroom dancer. That's it, I've made my decision, look out world!

Truthfully though, I have always loved dancing of all sorts and every once in a while I would catch a ballroom dancing competition on TV really late on a Saturday night. I was always mesmerized by it and taken aback by the strength & endurance of the dancers...not to mention their elegance.

Now if I could only grow waaaaaaaay taller and be waaaaaaaaaaaay thinner, I'm all set!

Proud day

I have had a day that has filled me with so much pride. I will now brag....

First, J had his first ever soccer game this afternoon. I was so proud of him, he scored a goal! I was amazed with his endurance, he just kept running up & down the field with not a single complaint of being tired (kids in the age group often complain, cry, etc.)

Second, O also played her first soccer game of the season. I had to miss her game because hers & J's game were at the same time. Dh is now coaching O, so he took her, while I took J. Anyway, O's team won, which is great but that's not the best part. Earlier this evening, we had to attend her softball banquet. (she played softball this past spring) Of course she got the standard trophy for playing....but then...she got the Cavanaugh Award, a trophy awarded for the player with distinction! We were so proud of her & her excitement was beyond compare.

What a proud day at the M home!

Ch ch ch changes

So I'm all set to begin working on Monday! I decided to stay at Ps. My new schedule will be Mondays from 4-8 (awesome because I'll have the daytime to myself while the kids are in school), and the rest of the week from 9-2. (well actually I'll be off on Tuesdays until 11-1-06). I'll be able to bring & pick up the kids from school everyday with this schedule. I also agreed to work one Sunday a month. How could I not? They are giving me everything. I've even managed within about 99% certainty to get summers off! P is so flexible too...if I have to chaperone a field trip or attend a school function, I can go. I'm pretty confident that I've made the right decision, at least while my children are so young. I'm going to send in my teacher's assistant paperwork anyway so that I can get my certification. This way if I ever wanted to make the switch, I can.

I'm hoping I can handle the extra hours. I know I'm going to have to be super organized to get the 3 of us out of the house every morning. There's no way I'll leave the house messy or with beds unmade, so I guess I'll need to make sure everything is in place before I go to bed at night. Change...I hope I'm up to the challenge!

Socks & Underpants

I love back to school time. Olivia will be going into 3rd grade, Johnny into kindergarten. There is something about this time of year that just feels so renewing to me, almost like New Year's Day. I want to clean, get rid of the old, start fresh.

The kids have all of their new clothes, sneakers, shoes and school supplies ready to go and I remembered with great fondness how wonderful it felt (as a kid) to have all those new items. As a kid, I loved new tall pencils sharpened to a perfect point with unused eraser tops. The feeling of a brand new crayon in my hand was nothing short of pure bliss. I won't even get started about new pristine notebooks! I always swore I was going to use my best handwriting in those new notebooks and never get messy. Now don't think for even a minute that I wasn't just as excited over new clothes...that feeling is indescribable! To this day, I love the feeling of new socks on my feet and new underpants on my...bottom.

So I asked myself yesterday, "why should I miss out of the fun of this refreshing new school year?" and "Who says you have to be in school in order to get back to school clothes?" So with that, I'm going to do a little back to school shopping for myself! Bet you'll never guess what my first purchases will be? Socks & underpants of course!

Where'd you go?

Sing along:
(song lyrics by Fort Minor)

Where'd you go?
I miss you so
Seems like its been forever that you've been gone
Where'd you go?
I miss you so
Seems like its been forever that you've been gone
Please Come back home

Of course I'm speaking about my MOJO!! This song is perfect for my missing mojo. Oh the torture of it all! I've had so much time to scrap today and I hate EVERYTHING that I've done. Maybe it's because the pictures I've been working with lately haven't been exactly perfect? I don't know, but it better come back...asap, because I can't take this much longer!

So, play it again Sam:

Where'd you go?
I miss you so
Seems like its been forever that you've been gone
Where'd you go?
I miss you so
Seems like its been forever that you've been gone
Please Come back home