Reposting: Time flies when you are devoting all your time to a sick child and facebook!

This post was originally posted on Sept. 8th of 2008.

I have just left this port to the right and am sailing for The Bitter End. I've already had too many rum punches and am being a leach on the boat and crew's (that would be friends' & relatives') resources and goodwill. They may keel-haul me soon!! Send more rum and I won't care!! :)


CC's tonsillectomy was two weeks ago and he is finally 100%. Oddly, he refused to eat ice cream and popsicles (I'll have more to say about these pernicious little icy treats later) and would only eat chocolate pudding and jello for the first 7 days. He then added chicken noodle soup to the repetoire and by the 9th day he was eating a hamburger, the 11th day saw French fries and when he requested doritos yesterday I knew his recovery was complete. To be sure, there was a fair amount of hysteria: on his part because it was much more painful than he had supposed it would be and on MY part because I am neither a fully functioning nor incredibley compassionate human after three nights of waking myself every four hours to administer medicine to a child (no matter how sick), but we all made it through and I swear he is a better kid already; more patient with himself and obliging to me and his father. Time will tell, but so far, I am as impressed as the doctors said I might be. :)

I have not posted in awhile because so many things have been happening of late! I finished registering for classes *finally* today to start my first semester as a full-fledged graduate student. I was waffling back and forth and hither and yon on which classes to take and what path I should take in the Library and Information Studies field.... hard to do when all I really know about the different areas is what sounds interesting to me and what the requirements are. So, in the end I'm taking this fabulous class that will satisfy the geek in me and really stretch my abilities, too. It is like computer science for people who are really not programmers at all, but wish they were. People like me. Although, I will admit that I have yet to encounter another person in the class who is so unabashedly excited about being there (insert goofy grin here). Oh, well, someone has to be the 36-year-old mom in the room that is just supremely grateful to be there and not at home doing the laundry or the dishes! Hooray for me!!!!! I am taking another class that looks like it will be a lot of fun, as well, Young Adult Literature. The reading list includes "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.", 'Twilight," and about 18 other books that I am thrilled to read again or for the first time. It is an online class, which I was apprehensive about taking, but so far I am very impressed with how well organized the class website it. The professor even included a weekly checklist on what is due- complete with actual little boxes to check off! It is too much; I almost feel like it is remedial, but at the same time I am (again) grateful for the help.

Now, back to those pesky popsicles.... sigh. The Animal, ever my unfailing little trouble-magnet, burst into my room last Thursday (one week post-tonsillectomy and everyone except the sick boy is eating at least three popcicles a day because I got an institutional-sized box of them) at 7 am screaming, "Pops! Pops!!!" This would be his way of asking nicely to have a popsicle for breakfast, I suppose. Or, in his case, to announce that he had already helped himself and was asking me to open the popsicle that he already was carrying in his hand. I told him ever so firmly, "Absolutely NO popsicles for breakfast." And took the popsicle wrapper away from him. To my horror, the contents of the wrapper gushed out into my hands and onto the floor. ...... pause ..... You know where this is going, right? ..... I flew to the deep freeze in the basement (we have, sadly, an upright one that does not have a lock) and found it wide open. I checked the popsicles: all melted. The vegetables: soft. The pizzas: limp. Everything in the freezer was defrosted. EVERYTHING. I thanked God that I had put the $60 worth of steaks I had bought two days previous at Costco in the other freezer and then cursed him simultaneously as he had saddled me with this overzealous child. So, I saved all the bread-y things, but had to throw out all the veggies and meats that were in there.... maybe a couple hundred bucks worth. Ugh. I've started saying The Animals's name like Jerry Seinfeld used to say "Newman"... but then he careens around a corner and wraps himself around my legs and comes in for a kiss, followed by an Eskimo (wait, is that politically incorrect to say now?) kiss and then a butterfly one and I can't help but just love him to bits.... The trials and joys of motherhood, huh?

There is now a duct tape "lock" on the freezer that seems to be doing the job very well, in case you are wondering....

Resolution, as of 2/27/09: CC was always a light sleeper and had problems falling asleep.... Since he got the tonsils and adenoids out, I wouldn't say he is a "different child" but I would say that it has definitely improved his outlook on life. He sleeps like a dream and my only regret is that we didn't schedule the surgery at five (instead of waiting until he was almost nine).

We still have the door taped shut on the freezer and haven't had anymore Big Thaws since that one. He has found a hundred other ways to keep us all on our toed since then.

And I laughed that I put facebook in the title of this post, but then never mention it! I am not facebooking nearly as much as I was last September, I am indifferent to report. As far as I am concerned, I just traded in one addiction (facebook) for another even more time consuming one (blogging). I like blogging more, though, in case anyone wondered. :)

Also: I ended up having to drop the teen lit. class because I could not keep up with the two books a week reading load. And the geek class was waaaaay too easy. No programing (one day of html!???) and just slightly more in depth survey of a bunch of stuff I already knew about. I did like the quirky lady-teacher, though.