Hey, just a friendly notification that I don't use my kids' names on here, and I don't advertise exactly where I live either.
After I'd had my blog up for a while, I learned on the news about another mom who had a special needs child that had something unspeakable happen: a child predator read her blog, figured out where she lived, and knew exactly what her kid's name was, how old she was, and what her disabilities were -- I don't remember the details (I've probably blocked them out) but I immediately went into my blog, all the way back to the first post, and changed all names to initial only. This sounds like one of those eternally circulating urban legend e-mails, but this one was unfortunately very true.
Seeing as how A doesn't really talk or communicate well, and seeing as how he is a beautiful kid (as is his sister), and there are a lot of weirdos out there, I acted on the better part of safety.
Call me paranoid, whatever.
But yeah, I don't use my family's names here. I had to delete a recent comment because I couldn't just edit the one word (sorry Mel!) and figured I'd put up a post explaining why. I'm not being a complete wench, just a cautious momma.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Seize the Day
Well, tradition holds: no long-distance move is ever complete without a late night trip to the local emergency room, within a week after arriving at our new destination. As an added bonus, Z is currently training halfway across the country and is not home. This time, however, it wasn't me with some rare life-threatening condition (which is what has happened in the past); Miss K is a trooper and took one for the team.
It's funny; I was actually waiting for something to happen and watching for it, and fate* did not let me down.
It would seem that there was some overly exuberant jumping on Mommy and Daddy's air mattress, and K didn't land quite right. Actually, she belly flopped. Hard. And landed on her face before the rest of her body connected to the bed. I was in the room and picked her up immediately, she was screaming and grabbing her neck. Then, one of the worst things a mom can see happened: she stopped screaming, arched her back, and then her eyes rolled up in the back of her head and she had clenched her jaw and was out cold. It lasted less than a minute, but it was not pleasant for either of the adults witnessing this.
Z's mother is staying with us for a couple of weeks, so she stayed at the house with A while I flew to the hospital with K. Flew, as in, I still have out of state tags so I kept one eye on my rearview mirror while driving as quickly as I safely could, but not exactly in keeping with the local speed limit. While we were in the waiting room, K regained her color and started acting perfectly normal. As in, flirting with the cute boys and a toothless old man with a cane, and giving hugs to a 10-yr-old girl waiting with her mother. The old man was very surprised, and said, "She's not scared of much, is she." A statement rather than a question.
Results: K is just fine.
She is perfectly normal on every test they could run, although her pupils are mildly dilated. They also did a CT scan on her that -- bless the techs -- K screamed and fought the entire procedure. She had to be wrapped up like a burrito and held in place because she just would not hold still -- and K still managed to worm her right arm out and start hitting the woman holding her head steady. To say that K was not happy would be a huge, huge understatement. I'm thinking of buying a bunch of earplugs for the techs as a "thank you", just in case they ever get another screamer in there. My ears were ringing after the ordeal was over, so I know theirs had to be as well.
The doctor did ask about her prior history and was very interested when I said the only hospitalization she'd ever had was for a seizure incident right after she turned one. Based on the description, it sounds like she may have had another mini seizure. The doc hastened to say that it is not at all uncommon in small children to have a reaction like that after a trauma event -- the brain and nerves don't know how to handle the strong stimuli and just kind of freeze up, or pause for a few seconds. And landing on her head and neck the way she did, it probably popped those nerves in there pretty hard so there was a tremendous amount of pain going on.
We're watching her. We were discharged with instructions for a concussion and are supposed to note if her pupils change size, she gets a fever, or starts vomiting profusely.
Only my daughter would get a concussion and possibly have a seizure from landing wrong on an air mattress. *sigh*
We got home after midnight, and I brought her in to sleep with me. She had nightmares (probably from the CT scan) every 30-45 minutes....and then my husband called me at 6:24 a.m., just after K had dropped off again from her latest bad dream. I am sooooo not a morning person. I think I need the mug that states "Instant Human: Just Add Coffee". It takes me a good hour after I first "wake up" to really be awake.
This morning was definitely a coffee morning. Only thing is, Z always makes the coffee and I have no clue how to do it. Combine that with the sleep deprivation from last night, and it makes for a sad situation. I read on the package that you put in one-and-a-half to two tablespoons of coffee per 6 oz cup. I only wanted one cup, so I dutifully put one-and-a-half tablespoons of grounds into the filter basket. I did remember to put a filter in there. Then I filled the pot up to the "6 cup" mark, dumped the water in, and turned it on.
That was the nastiest brew I have ingested in a long time.
Yes, I put in enough grounds for one cup....but put in water for 6 cups. Still, I was definitely awake after taking one sip of that stuff, so it still served its purpose I suppose.
K is acting completely herself today, no indication that she's in any pain anywhere. So we're good. I have a Muppet movie on in the living room -- finally. I had to do a little "percussive maintenance"* on the DVD player to get it to work. It's one of those cheap-o $15 dealies that is several years old, so it's wearing out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Fate is one of those things that is not respectful of a person's social status or age; it gets around to affecting everyone at some point. I've also noticed that "fate" is "fat" with an "e" tacked on to the end of it.
*percussive maintenance is when you beat the snot out of the offending appliance or machine with your hand, shoe, or whatever else is available. I have found that computers respond pretty well to this, despite the delicate nature of their internal electronics.
It's funny; I was actually waiting for something to happen and watching for it, and fate* did not let me down.
It would seem that there was some overly exuberant jumping on Mommy and Daddy's air mattress, and K didn't land quite right. Actually, she belly flopped. Hard. And landed on her face before the rest of her body connected to the bed. I was in the room and picked her up immediately, she was screaming and grabbing her neck. Then, one of the worst things a mom can see happened: she stopped screaming, arched her back, and then her eyes rolled up in the back of her head and she had clenched her jaw and was out cold. It lasted less than a minute, but it was not pleasant for either of the adults witnessing this.
Z's mother is staying with us for a couple of weeks, so she stayed at the house with A while I flew to the hospital with K. Flew, as in, I still have out of state tags so I kept one eye on my rearview mirror while driving as quickly as I safely could, but not exactly in keeping with the local speed limit. While we were in the waiting room, K regained her color and started acting perfectly normal. As in, flirting with the cute boys and a toothless old man with a cane, and giving hugs to a 10-yr-old girl waiting with her mother. The old man was very surprised, and said, "She's not scared of much, is she." A statement rather than a question.
Results: K is just fine.
She is perfectly normal on every test they could run, although her pupils are mildly dilated. They also did a CT scan on her that -- bless the techs -- K screamed and fought the entire procedure. She had to be wrapped up like a burrito and held in place because she just would not hold still -- and K still managed to worm her right arm out and start hitting the woman holding her head steady. To say that K was not happy would be a huge, huge understatement. I'm thinking of buying a bunch of earplugs for the techs as a "thank you", just in case they ever get another screamer in there. My ears were ringing after the ordeal was over, so I know theirs had to be as well.
The doctor did ask about her prior history and was very interested when I said the only hospitalization she'd ever had was for a seizure incident right after she turned one. Based on the description, it sounds like she may have had another mini seizure. The doc hastened to say that it is not at all uncommon in small children to have a reaction like that after a trauma event -- the brain and nerves don't know how to handle the strong stimuli and just kind of freeze up, or pause for a few seconds. And landing on her head and neck the way she did, it probably popped those nerves in there pretty hard so there was a tremendous amount of pain going on.
We're watching her. We were discharged with instructions for a concussion and are supposed to note if her pupils change size, she gets a fever, or starts vomiting profusely.
Only my daughter would get a concussion and possibly have a seizure from landing wrong on an air mattress. *sigh*
We got home after midnight, and I brought her in to sleep with me. She had nightmares (probably from the CT scan) every 30-45 minutes....and then my husband called me at 6:24 a.m., just after K had dropped off again from her latest bad dream. I am sooooo not a morning person. I think I need the mug that states "Instant Human: Just Add Coffee". It takes me a good hour after I first "wake up" to really be awake.
This morning was definitely a coffee morning. Only thing is, Z always makes the coffee and I have no clue how to do it. Combine that with the sleep deprivation from last night, and it makes for a sad situation. I read on the package that you put in one-and-a-half to two tablespoons of coffee per 6 oz cup. I only wanted one cup, so I dutifully put one-and-a-half tablespoons of grounds into the filter basket. I did remember to put a filter in there. Then I filled the pot up to the "6 cup" mark, dumped the water in, and turned it on.
That was the nastiest brew I have ingested in a long time.
Yes, I put in enough grounds for one cup....but put in water for 6 cups. Still, I was definitely awake after taking one sip of that stuff, so it still served its purpose I suppose.
K is acting completely herself today, no indication that she's in any pain anywhere. So we're good. I have a Muppet movie on in the living room -- finally. I had to do a little "percussive maintenance"* on the DVD player to get it to work. It's one of those cheap-o $15 dealies that is several years old, so it's wearing out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Fate is one of those things that is not respectful of a person's social status or age; it gets around to affecting everyone at some point. I've also noticed that "fate" is "fat" with an "e" tacked on to the end of it.
*percussive maintenance is when you beat the snot out of the offending appliance or machine with your hand, shoe, or whatever else is available. I have found that computers respond pretty well to this, despite the delicate nature of their internal electronics.
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Land of the Sonics
We're gradually getting our bearings here. No one -- and I mean, no one --apparently has a map of this town, and half the roads aren't on the GPS because they're too new, so every trek is truly explorative in nature.
We did find a fabulous duck pond yesterday, complete with ducks, geese, lots of turtles, and huge goldfish or koi. I don't know the difference between large goldfish or koi but I've been assured that there is one. Um, okay. Scattered around the pond are picnic tables and trees, so we took our lunch out there. Sonic! Yay! Z and I both love being in the land of the Sonics again. The closest one to us in Maryland was over 4 hours away, and neither of us could justify that kind of drive just for a cherry limeade. Although they are quite tasty. : )
For those of you who have not had the pleasure, Sonic is a drive-in restaurant along the lines of the original A&W's. They have good fountain drinks and shakes, and serve a variety of food. You pull into a parking place, put your order in over the intercom, and a carhop brings you your food. In some places, the carhops are actually on rollerskates. (More power to 'em, I'd be likely to dump the cherry limeades all over myself and the customers if I ever tried the skating bit. Shoot, I sometimes spilled things just walking when I had my waitressing job in a cafe, but luckily never on anyone but myself.)
I like the wraps and salads at Sonic, but they also have plenty of meat to satisfy the carnivore in (most of) you, including burgers and "coneys" -- hot dogs that are a foot long. They also serve chili cheese (tater) tots, aka "coronary in a basket" -- and of course my husband ordered those to munch on yesterday. I (being above such things as that) spurned the tots, fries, and burgers and took the high road by ordering a wrap... and a strawberry milkshake -- complete with huge chunks of strawberries that got stuck in the straw several times. Yum. The fat cells in my butt rejoiced, for I was adding to their numbers...
On our meanderings yesterday we also found the planetarium, a proliferation of Chinese restaurants, several shopping centers, and an absolutely gorgeous overlook. In the area we are currently living in, it's relatively flat with few trees and a lot of dead grass. There are some flowers blooming, enough to make my sinuses give me a "Hawaiian good luck sign", but not much else. For those of you that don't know what the Hawaiian good luck sign is, Google is a wonderful thing.
A few miles from our house lies "hill country". There is a new residential development that overlooks the valley and an enormous lake that Z swears was calling to him to go fishing. These homes are not mere houses; they are more like estates, the type of homes you see on TV that are in Beverly Hills, CA. One of those homes that would easily go for $2 million plus back in Maryland, especially in the more tony neighborhoods surrounding our nation's capital. They cost -- wait for it -- $175K to $250K here.
!!!!!!!!!!!!
Definitely threw both Z and I for a loop....the price we paid for our brown fixer-upper cinderblock home in Maryland, built in 1960, was the same price some of the brand new custom built lower-priced homes with the view here -- and it was appraised at $240K when we bought it. Now that's insane. Everything costs less here -- groceries, clothing, whatever. The tax is higher, when you combine the state, county, and city but things are still cheaper here overall than they were back home. I mean, in Maryland.
Boy, that's going to take some adjustment to quit saying that.
We did find a fabulous duck pond yesterday, complete with ducks, geese, lots of turtles, and huge goldfish or koi. I don't know the difference between large goldfish or koi but I've been assured that there is one. Um, okay. Scattered around the pond are picnic tables and trees, so we took our lunch out there. Sonic! Yay! Z and I both love being in the land of the Sonics again. The closest one to us in Maryland was over 4 hours away, and neither of us could justify that kind of drive just for a cherry limeade. Although they are quite tasty. : )
For those of you who have not had the pleasure, Sonic is a drive-in restaurant along the lines of the original A&W's. They have good fountain drinks and shakes, and serve a variety of food. You pull into a parking place, put your order in over the intercom, and a carhop brings you your food. In some places, the carhops are actually on rollerskates. (More power to 'em, I'd be likely to dump the cherry limeades all over myself and the customers if I ever tried the skating bit. Shoot, I sometimes spilled things just walking when I had my waitressing job in a cafe, but luckily never on anyone but myself.)
I like the wraps and salads at Sonic, but they also have plenty of meat to satisfy the carnivore in (most of) you, including burgers and "coneys" -- hot dogs that are a foot long. They also serve chili cheese (tater) tots, aka "coronary in a basket" -- and of course my husband ordered those to munch on yesterday. I (being above such things as that) spurned the tots, fries, and burgers and took the high road by ordering a wrap... and a strawberry milkshake -- complete with huge chunks of strawberries that got stuck in the straw several times. Yum. The fat cells in my butt rejoiced, for I was adding to their numbers...
On our meanderings yesterday we also found the planetarium, a proliferation of Chinese restaurants, several shopping centers, and an absolutely gorgeous overlook. In the area we are currently living in, it's relatively flat with few trees and a lot of dead grass. There are some flowers blooming, enough to make my sinuses give me a "Hawaiian good luck sign", but not much else. For those of you that don't know what the Hawaiian good luck sign is, Google is a wonderful thing.
A few miles from our house lies "hill country". There is a new residential development that overlooks the valley and an enormous lake that Z swears was calling to him to go fishing. These homes are not mere houses; they are more like estates, the type of homes you see on TV that are in Beverly Hills, CA. One of those homes that would easily go for $2 million plus back in Maryland, especially in the more tony neighborhoods surrounding our nation's capital. They cost -- wait for it -- $175K to $250K here.
!!!!!!!!!!!!
Definitely threw both Z and I for a loop....the price we paid for our brown fixer-upper cinderblock home in Maryland, built in 1960, was the same price some of the brand new custom built lower-priced homes with the view here -- and it was appraised at $240K when we bought it. Now that's insane. Everything costs less here -- groceries, clothing, whatever. The tax is higher, when you combine the state, county, and city but things are still cheaper here overall than they were back home. I mean, in Maryland.
Boy, that's going to take some adjustment to quit saying that.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Transition
Whew!
Well, we're here in the great state of Texas. Our mantra for about the last week in Maryland and during the 1500+ mile drive down here was pretty much: Eat. Sleep. Texas (the goal).
We survived the yard sale and actually sold or gave away most everything but the couch...which didn't weigh that much, honestly, so it wasn't such a big deal to load onto the truck. We were trying to keep our weight down because we were paying movers to move us this time, and they charge you based on weight. Z's back and my hip just can't handle the loading and unloading process -- although we could have packed it all up ourselves.
We kept all the bedroom furniture, just for some continuity for the kids, especially A. We did sell the Thomas the Train toddler bed because Miss K turns 3 on Sunday and it's time for a "big girl" bed. Oh, she could still fit in the toddler bed; she'd probably still fit in it three years from now, she's so small. But the hassle of trying to move that thing combined with her birthday, we just decided to ditch the cumbersome plastic ungirly bed and get her something that will last her a bit longer. Like, through high school.
So in the meantime we're "camping out" on air mattresses and a love seat the previous owners left in the house we're renting here in Texas. I'm hoping the air mattresses hold up until the furniture gets here, because my darling K loves to bounce and jump on the "bouncy beds!".
Everything has come together beautifully! We survived the drive down here, during which Mother Nature threw nearly everything in her arsenal at us: snow, sleet, freezing rain, regular unfrozen rain, and some hail that skirted just north of us that we didn't have to drive through (yay). At least there were no tornados or hurricanes. I suppose we could say that the state of Texas hailed us on the way in....or maybe it was just warning us of the storms to come as it heats up.
I had to drive the Dodge with the kids, and Z drove his newly fixed old Honda down. The whole trip. The kids were actually pretty super about the whole thing, though the trek could be summed up with that old poem:
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
And when she was good,
She was very, very good...
And when she was bad, she was horrid!
A is so well behaved. He had one fit on the second day, about 2 hours before we stopped, but that was it. His temperamental energetic sister, on the other hand, had tantrums about, oh, every 2 hours -- the entire trip -- because she was bored and couldn't run around 28 hours at a time like she generally does. God Bless whoever invented those car DVD players. I strapped those suckers to the headrests and started a movie if the howling got really bad. Technology, sanity savers, whatever. I love 'em.
We were "pounded" by the church when we arrived here. For those unfamiliar with the term, that does not mean we got a beat-down for a welcome. "Welcome to Texas! Let me introduce you to my sweet left hook!" Rather, it means various people supplied our pantry with a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, that sort of thing, and stocked us up with toilet paper and paper towels too. Everyone is very nice, which is a relief. There is a lady here that is a cross between Tricia Hill in TN and April Brady in MD, so she is going to be a lot of fun.
Kids are adjusting. K already has 2 new best friends at church and has enjoyed running around the building, pastor's yard, and local restaurants with them. Yes, they ran around the back sitting area of a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant on Sunday, much to the chagrin of 3 sets of parents. Fabulous food, by the way.
A has not adjusted as well. Any change in his "normal" routine can cause issues, and we just changed everything. His school, church, home, therapies -- everything. We have no real furniture in the new house, so he can't even see something he recognizes other than his immediate family members. A had a couple of meltdowns on Sunday -- and by "meltdown", I mean crying, howling, and kicking and hitting whoever was next to him. Curiously, he has stopped spitting on people -- which, of course, is great.
We have noticed a HUGE increase in A's stimming -- flapping his hands, pacing and hopping, and even some spinning in circles again. He hasn't done that for a very, very long time -- almost 2 years -- so this made Z and I sit up and take notice. A has also had to go off by himself a lot, both at the business meeting Sunday evening and at Bible study last night. He just needed to get away from the crowd of unfamiliar people, I guess, and observe for a while where it was a little quieter.
Well, I have to go and get my keys from the pastor's wife. Karl and Karen took us around town today showing us various things, and apparently I lost my keys in their van. Thank God, because if the keys were anywhere else I'd have no clue how to get back to all the places we went today.
Well, we're here in the great state of Texas. Our mantra for about the last week in Maryland and during the 1500+ mile drive down here was pretty much: Eat. Sleep. Texas (the goal).
We survived the yard sale and actually sold or gave away most everything but the couch...which didn't weigh that much, honestly, so it wasn't such a big deal to load onto the truck. We were trying to keep our weight down because we were paying movers to move us this time, and they charge you based on weight. Z's back and my hip just can't handle the loading and unloading process -- although we could have packed it all up ourselves.
We kept all the bedroom furniture, just for some continuity for the kids, especially A. We did sell the Thomas the Train toddler bed because Miss K turns 3 on Sunday and it's time for a "big girl" bed. Oh, she could still fit in the toddler bed; she'd probably still fit in it three years from now, she's so small. But the hassle of trying to move that thing combined with her birthday, we just decided to ditch the cumbersome plastic ungirly bed and get her something that will last her a bit longer. Like, through high school.
So in the meantime we're "camping out" on air mattresses and a love seat the previous owners left in the house we're renting here in Texas. I'm hoping the air mattresses hold up until the furniture gets here, because my darling K loves to bounce and jump on the "bouncy beds!".
Everything has come together beautifully! We survived the drive down here, during which Mother Nature threw nearly everything in her arsenal at us: snow, sleet, freezing rain, regular unfrozen rain, and some hail that skirted just north of us that we didn't have to drive through (yay). At least there were no tornados or hurricanes. I suppose we could say that the state of Texas hailed us on the way in....or maybe it was just warning us of the storms to come as it heats up.
I had to drive the Dodge with the kids, and Z drove his newly fixed old Honda down. The whole trip. The kids were actually pretty super about the whole thing, though the trek could be summed up with that old poem:
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
And when she was good,
She was very, very good...
And when she was bad, she was horrid!
A is so well behaved. He had one fit on the second day, about 2 hours before we stopped, but that was it. His temperamental energetic sister, on the other hand, had tantrums about, oh, every 2 hours -- the entire trip -- because she was bored and couldn't run around 28 hours at a time like she generally does. God Bless whoever invented those car DVD players. I strapped those suckers to the headrests and started a movie if the howling got really bad. Technology, sanity savers, whatever. I love 'em.
We were "pounded" by the church when we arrived here. For those unfamiliar with the term, that does not mean we got a beat-down for a welcome. "Welcome to Texas! Let me introduce you to my sweet left hook!" Rather, it means various people supplied our pantry with a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, that sort of thing, and stocked us up with toilet paper and paper towels too. Everyone is very nice, which is a relief. There is a lady here that is a cross between Tricia Hill in TN and April Brady in MD, so she is going to be a lot of fun.
Kids are adjusting. K already has 2 new best friends at church and has enjoyed running around the building, pastor's yard, and local restaurants with them. Yes, they ran around the back sitting area of a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant on Sunday, much to the chagrin of 3 sets of parents. Fabulous food, by the way.
A has not adjusted as well. Any change in his "normal" routine can cause issues, and we just changed everything. His school, church, home, therapies -- everything. We have no real furniture in the new house, so he can't even see something he recognizes other than his immediate family members. A had a couple of meltdowns on Sunday -- and by "meltdown", I mean crying, howling, and kicking and hitting whoever was next to him. Curiously, he has stopped spitting on people -- which, of course, is great.
We have noticed a HUGE increase in A's stimming -- flapping his hands, pacing and hopping, and even some spinning in circles again. He hasn't done that for a very, very long time -- almost 2 years -- so this made Z and I sit up and take notice. A has also had to go off by himself a lot, both at the business meeting Sunday evening and at Bible study last night. He just needed to get away from the crowd of unfamiliar people, I guess, and observe for a while where it was a little quieter.
Well, I have to go and get my keys from the pastor's wife. Karl and Karen took us around town today showing us various things, and apparently I lost my keys in their van. Thank God, because if the keys were anywhere else I'd have no clue how to get back to all the places we went today.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Good Old Fashioned Pancakes
Growing up, my house had a tradition of making pancakes every Saturday morning. This has not happened for my family, largely due to my husband's odd work schedule -- we never knew which days he'd be off in a week, so we just kind of made them whenever.
Z had today off, so I made some pancakes this morning. We are at the "clean out the freezer, have really weird meal combinations" phase, so it was a nice (normal) break to use up some of the blueberries in the pancakes this morning. I also made a nice blueberry compote to go with it, yum!
I have a confession to make: as much as I cook from scratch, I was raised as a Bisquick girl. My mother and grandmother used it, so I did too...until money got tight and it was too expensive to buy. The other brands just don't taste as good to me, so I started hunting for a good "from scratch" pancake recipe. I found several that were....okay...they turned out really thin and rubbery, though. My cooking bible that I use as a reference for just about everything, The Joy of Cooking, also didn't supply quite what I was looking for. I'll make a recipe as directed the first time, and then make adjustments as needed if I make it again. (I am an artist after all, I can't just duplicate something -- I have to make it mine) -- but this had me stymied.
I didn't ask for much: I wanted fluff, I wanted a particular texture, and I didn't want a bad baking soda taste. I finally found one that my husband and I both like on allrecipes.com, that beats the Bisquick ones hand down. Even if I have Bisquick in the house, I'll still use this recipe. I even make it exactly like it says, I don't change a thing -- although I will occasionally add a smidge of vanilla.
My kids inhale these every time I make them, and since the toddler/preschool set have some of the most discriminating, picky palates out there, I consider these to be a hit. Num num. Now if I could just find a good scratch biscuit recipe....I do still use the Bisquick for those.
Z had today off, so I made some pancakes this morning. We are at the "clean out the freezer, have really weird meal combinations" phase, so it was a nice (normal) break to use up some of the blueberries in the pancakes this morning. I also made a nice blueberry compote to go with it, yum!
I have a confession to make: as much as I cook from scratch, I was raised as a Bisquick girl. My mother and grandmother used it, so I did too...until money got tight and it was too expensive to buy. The other brands just don't taste as good to me, so I started hunting for a good "from scratch" pancake recipe. I found several that were....okay...they turned out really thin and rubbery, though. My cooking bible that I use as a reference for just about everything, The Joy of Cooking, also didn't supply quite what I was looking for. I'll make a recipe as directed the first time, and then make adjustments as needed if I make it again. (I am an artist after all, I can't just duplicate something -- I have to make it mine) -- but this had me stymied.
I didn't ask for much: I wanted fluff, I wanted a particular texture, and I didn't want a bad baking soda taste. I finally found one that my husband and I both like on allrecipes.com, that beats the Bisquick ones hand down. Even if I have Bisquick in the house, I'll still use this recipe. I even make it exactly like it says, I don't change a thing -- although I will occasionally add a smidge of vanilla.
My kids inhale these every time I make them, and since the toddler/preschool set have some of the most discriminating, picky palates out there, I consider these to be a hit. Num num. Now if I could just find a good scratch biscuit recipe....I do still use the Bisquick for those.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Morning Cough-y
All of the flu symptoms have gone, but ONE: the annoying, loud, and body-shaking cough that, despite covering my mouth with my arm, guarantees me a wide berth from general bystanders. On the one hand, this pretty much insures my own seat on the subway or bus with room to stretch out, but on the other hand I have to tolerate dirty looks. At least it's just occasional at this point, though, so YAY!
*hack* *hack* *wheeze*
I think I'm going to lose a lung, or possibly my spleen. There's good money for those, right?
Thank God all the other stuff has abated though, I was going mad from my joints hurting -- especially climbing up and down the stairs. My 87-yr-old grandmother has some pretty bad arthritis, so this has given me some insight into what she deals with. Not fun, I'm lucky mine was just temporary.
With all the general poopy feeling in the house, though, we are seriously behind in our moving preparations. Even though we still felt yucky, I had to do "blitzkrieg cleaning" on Sunday and Monday, because we had potential renters coming to look at the house Monday evening. After a week of three of us in a malaise, the house could have possibly passed as a biohazard lab: Kleenex's overflowing the wastebaskets onto the floors, dishes piled up and out of the sink, Mount Saint Laundry in front of the washer...I think I saw a pair of my son's socks try to move across the floor on their own. A is only five, but that kid has some serious foot odor issues, has since he was a baby -- even in sandals.
Actually, it wasn't too bad, there was just stuff everywhere because I didn't have the energy to pick up toys or make my daughter do it. Clutter, clutter, added to all the stuff we'd started to pull out and go through to prepare for the move. Three piles on each floor: keep, yard sale, and throw out or freecycle.
People have offered to help, but the sorting phase is something that we really have to do. And we have opted to have a moving company come in and pack us up. We were originally planning to do this ourselves, but with our recent delays and Z's bad back, we figured it was worth it to pay for someone else to do the heavy lifting and driving the truck 1500 miles. So they come on March 9 and 10 to pack us and load the truck. There's really only one thing I can say that sums up this whole experience:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
There may be something to that "primal scream therapy"... : )
Z has moved our yard sale from this Saturday to next Saturday. And they say that women change their minds often. Heh. Hope it all sells, and if it doesn't, that freecyclers come quickly because we're running out of time, the movers come two days later.
*sigh*
*cough*
*hack* *hack* *wheeze*
I think I'm going to lose a lung, or possibly my spleen. There's good money for those, right?
Thank God all the other stuff has abated though, I was going mad from my joints hurting -- especially climbing up and down the stairs. My 87-yr-old grandmother has some pretty bad arthritis, so this has given me some insight into what she deals with. Not fun, I'm lucky mine was just temporary.
With all the general poopy feeling in the house, though, we are seriously behind in our moving preparations. Even though we still felt yucky, I had to do "blitzkrieg cleaning" on Sunday and Monday, because we had potential renters coming to look at the house Monday evening. After a week of three of us in a malaise, the house could have possibly passed as a biohazard lab: Kleenex's overflowing the wastebaskets onto the floors, dishes piled up and out of the sink, Mount Saint Laundry in front of the washer...I think I saw a pair of my son's socks try to move across the floor on their own. A is only five, but that kid has some serious foot odor issues, has since he was a baby -- even in sandals.
Actually, it wasn't too bad, there was just stuff everywhere because I didn't have the energy to pick up toys or make my daughter do it. Clutter, clutter, added to all the stuff we'd started to pull out and go through to prepare for the move. Three piles on each floor: keep, yard sale, and throw out or freecycle.
People have offered to help, but the sorting phase is something that we really have to do. And we have opted to have a moving company come in and pack us up. We were originally planning to do this ourselves, but with our recent delays and Z's bad back, we figured it was worth it to pay for someone else to do the heavy lifting and driving the truck 1500 miles. So they come on March 9 and 10 to pack us and load the truck. There's really only one thing I can say that sums up this whole experience:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
There may be something to that "primal scream therapy"... : )
Z has moved our yard sale from this Saturday to next Saturday. And they say that women change their minds often. Heh. Hope it all sells, and if it doesn't, that freecyclers come quickly because we're running out of time, the movers come two days later.
*sigh*
*cough*
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
One Flu Over
One flu over (mostly)....two to go.
Great googaly moogalies! I'm not sure exactly what strain of flu is "going around", but it has knocked 3 of my family members on their butts. The only one unaffected (and we're praying, uninfected) is my daughter. So far, so good. This is not the stomach virus that a lot of people mistakenly call the "flu" -- this is the real old-fashioned influenza deal, complete with sore eyelids, fever and chills, etc. Nasty stuff, that.
I had a sore throat last Weds into Thursday, so when my husband started running a fever about 11:00 Thursday night I felt really bad -- I thought I'd given him something. Alas, it would seem that he did not have whatever I'd had and I had it backwards -- I started with the fever Saturday night into early Sunday morning, and my son started during the day on Sunday. At least my guilt over sharing something is gone. But if any of you start to get it, here's what you can expect:
Our fevers have all lasted 3 days, each. Z's ended on Sunday, mine and A's finally broke on Tuesday (in a blessed, but literally drenching episode). The fevers were high, too -- A's reached 104.5 and 104.7 at different times, so it was a challenge trying to bring his fever down when mine was right around 104 myself for a couple of days. I can honestly say I don't really remember a whole lot, other than being really lethargic and hurting and trying to keep moving up and down the stairs without falling down the stairs to get damp cloths to wipe him down (the only bathroom is on the first floor). The only one of us that threw up was A, but I suspect that was because of his very high fever and the temperature differential of the liquid we were trying to get him to ingest. He only did it once.
We have all had very sore throats, probably from drainage, horrible headaches, and excessive drool. Weird, but all of us have had a little extra spit over the last few days. Z is still dealing with the headache, achy joints, and a rather nasty cough -- but I watch his progress each day, because I know that that is where I'll be two days from now. I'm still in the lightheaded, achy joint (even toes and fingers! Good grief!), pounding headache, coughing phase, as is A. But we're getting better! I'm able to get by until I start coughing, and then my head feels like it's going to explode, and my chest muscles hurt from so much coughing over the last few days.
A hasn't even cared that his routine has been completely discarded for the better part of a week now -- he's felt like doing nothing but laying on the couch. He didn't even care that I finally turned off children's programming out of desperation and watched infomercials, just for something different. Yesterday A started to play with his sister a little bit, after his fever was gone, and this morning he is behaving fairly normal -- but you can still tell he's sore. Every time he tries to flap his hands to stim, he has to stop and gets this puzzled look on his face while he rubs his wrists and fingers.
One great source of frustration is the lack of communication between A and the rest of us. He still has a tendency to repeat the last word or words of whatever you just said, rather than volunteering anything. Z and I have tried multiple times to try to get A to tell us if his head hurts, or whatever -- to no avail. The only way I know what he's feeling right now is because I'm going through it myself. You can tell he's miserable by looking at him, but not why. This has caused us some frustration in the past -- especially with ear infections -- because he never tells us if something hurts, and we have no idea unless he starts acting differently that anything is amiss. *sigh* One of these days, we're hoping we'll cross that speech hurdle...
It would appear that once again, the flu shot manufacturers missed the mark in a big way, because this year's shot had absolutely no effect on keeping any of us from getting it, nor did it really reduce the length of time or the symptoms of the flu virus we have been fighting off (as the companies that make the flu shots love to advertise). The same thing happened last year, but luckily our family was spared. Other people in our area were not so lucky. Z has to get one every year, he has no choice, because he's required to by his job.
Bless Z's heart, he is still in the service for two more weeks, and Uncle Sam doesn't care how you feel. If you're not dead, you're at work. And, in the military, if you're sick, you go to sick call. Unless it's a holiday weekend, and the commander has issued Friday as an extra day off, so the clinic is closed -- yup -- from Thursday at close of business the week prior until the following Tuesday. Without that slip, you're out of luck, and the flu does not qualify as "urgent care" so he couldn't go that route either. And since Z didn't start getting sick until late Thursday night, he was one of those "out of luck" guys who just had to suck it up and deal.
So he's been to work last Friday (with a fever of 102.7), yesterday (Tuesday) and today. Sunday and Monday he wasn't scheduled to work, so that was nice. He was scheduled to work on Saturday and since he had a fever hovering around the 103 mark they let him stay home (his new NCOIC actually has a brain -- a seriously debatable fact about the one that just left. Don't get me started).
I'm so glad he's done with the random idiocy that occurs uniquely in the military setting. I have had many, many years of experience with it (I grew up with it), and I'm really fed up with it. We are proud to have served, and are proud of those that still are and will choose to do so in the future. But there really is an appalling amount of stupid junk our soldiers have to put up with -- mostly because "we've always done it that way". Just because you've always done something a certain way doesn't mean that it's not incredibly stupid. I don't advocate changing something just to change something, but if there are obvious issues, and solutions are available to better the situation -- wouldn't it make sense to make the improvements rather than digging in your heels and refusing to implement anything new "on principle"? That just smacks of ignorance and way too much pride getting in the way. Similar to a man in the Great Depression, who refused to let anyone give food to his starving family. Because he was too proud. And then the baby died of starvation. Stupid. But it happens.
Great googaly moogalies! I'm not sure exactly what strain of flu is "going around", but it has knocked 3 of my family members on their butts. The only one unaffected (and we're praying, uninfected) is my daughter. So far, so good. This is not the stomach virus that a lot of people mistakenly call the "flu" -- this is the real old-fashioned influenza deal, complete with sore eyelids, fever and chills, etc. Nasty stuff, that.
I had a sore throat last Weds into Thursday, so when my husband started running a fever about 11:00 Thursday night I felt really bad -- I thought I'd given him something. Alas, it would seem that he did not have whatever I'd had and I had it backwards -- I started with the fever Saturday night into early Sunday morning, and my son started during the day on Sunday. At least my guilt over sharing something is gone. But if any of you start to get it, here's what you can expect:
Our fevers have all lasted 3 days, each. Z's ended on Sunday, mine and A's finally broke on Tuesday (in a blessed, but literally drenching episode). The fevers were high, too -- A's reached 104.5 and 104.7 at different times, so it was a challenge trying to bring his fever down when mine was right around 104 myself for a couple of days. I can honestly say I don't really remember a whole lot, other than being really lethargic and hurting and trying to keep moving up and down the stairs without falling down the stairs to get damp cloths to wipe him down (the only bathroom is on the first floor). The only one of us that threw up was A, but I suspect that was because of his very high fever and the temperature differential of the liquid we were trying to get him to ingest. He only did it once.
We have all had very sore throats, probably from drainage, horrible headaches, and excessive drool. Weird, but all of us have had a little extra spit over the last few days. Z is still dealing with the headache, achy joints, and a rather nasty cough -- but I watch his progress each day, because I know that that is where I'll be two days from now. I'm still in the lightheaded, achy joint (even toes and fingers! Good grief!), pounding headache, coughing phase, as is A. But we're getting better! I'm able to get by until I start coughing, and then my head feels like it's going to explode, and my chest muscles hurt from so much coughing over the last few days.
A hasn't even cared that his routine has been completely discarded for the better part of a week now -- he's felt like doing nothing but laying on the couch. He didn't even care that I finally turned off children's programming out of desperation and watched infomercials, just for something different. Yesterday A started to play with his sister a little bit, after his fever was gone, and this morning he is behaving fairly normal -- but you can still tell he's sore. Every time he tries to flap his hands to stim, he has to stop and gets this puzzled look on his face while he rubs his wrists and fingers.
One great source of frustration is the lack of communication between A and the rest of us. He still has a tendency to repeat the last word or words of whatever you just said, rather than volunteering anything. Z and I have tried multiple times to try to get A to tell us if his head hurts, or whatever -- to no avail. The only way I know what he's feeling right now is because I'm going through it myself. You can tell he's miserable by looking at him, but not why. This has caused us some frustration in the past -- especially with ear infections -- because he never tells us if something hurts, and we have no idea unless he starts acting differently that anything is amiss. *sigh* One of these days, we're hoping we'll cross that speech hurdle...
It would appear that once again, the flu shot manufacturers missed the mark in a big way, because this year's shot had absolutely no effect on keeping any of us from getting it, nor did it really reduce the length of time or the symptoms of the flu virus we have been fighting off (as the companies that make the flu shots love to advertise). The same thing happened last year, but luckily our family was spared. Other people in our area were not so lucky. Z has to get one every year, he has no choice, because he's required to by his job.
Bless Z's heart, he is still in the service for two more weeks, and Uncle Sam doesn't care how you feel. If you're not dead, you're at work. And, in the military, if you're sick, you go to sick call. Unless it's a holiday weekend, and the commander has issued Friday as an extra day off, so the clinic is closed -- yup -- from Thursday at close of business the week prior until the following Tuesday. Without that slip, you're out of luck, and the flu does not qualify as "urgent care" so he couldn't go that route either. And since Z didn't start getting sick until late Thursday night, he was one of those "out of luck" guys who just had to suck it up and deal.
So he's been to work last Friday (with a fever of 102.7), yesterday (Tuesday) and today. Sunday and Monday he wasn't scheduled to work, so that was nice. He was scheduled to work on Saturday and since he had a fever hovering around the 103 mark they let him stay home (his new NCOIC actually has a brain -- a seriously debatable fact about the one that just left. Don't get me started).
I'm so glad he's done with the random idiocy that occurs uniquely in the military setting. I have had many, many years of experience with it (I grew up with it), and I'm really fed up with it. We are proud to have served, and are proud of those that still are and will choose to do so in the future. But there really is an appalling amount of stupid junk our soldiers have to put up with -- mostly because "we've always done it that way". Just because you've always done something a certain way doesn't mean that it's not incredibly stupid. I don't advocate changing something just to change something, but if there are obvious issues, and solutions are available to better the situation -- wouldn't it make sense to make the improvements rather than digging in your heels and refusing to implement anything new "on principle"? That just smacks of ignorance and way too much pride getting in the way. Similar to a man in the Great Depression, who refused to let anyone give food to his starving family. Because he was too proud. And then the baby died of starvation. Stupid. But it happens.
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