Sunday, March 22, 2015

And they're back

back to school, that is.
The week flew by.
LLB was sick, but managed to have a little bit of fun. She shopped, visited with her man and his family, and made some chocolate chip cookies.  #1 worked out, rested, and had a very relaxing break.
I will miss them, but they will all be back in 2 weeks for Easter.
(I sure hope the Easter Bunny gets her act together and gets some chocolate put aside for them.)

While he was home, #1 found out when he will report for his first military service - November. He is nervous but oh so excited to start his career and his life after college. We are very proud of him and know he will do his absolute best for his country and his men. :)




Monday, March 16, 2015

To Zoo or Not to Zoo...

That was the question.
The answer was Not to Zoo. We had to go to the doc's with LLB this morning instead. She is miserable. Her sweet man - who really is the nicest young man ever - is currently trying not to catch what ever she has while curled up with her on the couch watching TV.  She is very disappointed to not be going to the National Zoo today, but she needs to get better.

As soon as it warms up outside, I'll be opening windows and airing this place out. Maybe we can blow the germs out so we can all get better sooner...


Saturday, March 14, 2015

Swallowing Glass

That's what my throat felt like by 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I'd been fighting off something, but late yesterday afternoon it hit me like a ton of bricks. I called my regular doc. I called the number at 3:45, 4:00, 4:05, 4:10, 4:15, 4:20, and again at 4:25. All I got was a busy signal.
I called again at 4:30 - knowing they turn the phones off, but hoping I'd get someone. Not so much. I got the machine that says they are closed and to leave a message. We were going to be driving by the office, so I thought I'd take a chance. It was late -- 5:30. I know the last appointment is at 5, but I also know the docs always run late. The cars were still in the parking lot and the doors were open. There was a guy in the waiting room.
I went back to the desk where my doc's nurse is. I asked if there was any possible way they could see me. (They aren't open on the weekends and there is no other doc for 20 miles.) I was told that she was busy and that I'd have to wait an hour. I agreed and went back to the waiting room.
Then, a woman came out and told me it was going to be a two hour wait, I'd need to pay my copay in cash, and then told me a better option was the minute clinic in Warrenton. I went home and called the doc's office one more time to see if I could get the doc on call. After a 20 min. wait, I decided that the urgent care in Gainesville was a better choice.
I was almost there. The phone rang -- it was Mr. He said the doc's office called and that they were waiting for me. Really? They unlocked the door to let me out. I called them and left another message telling them that I knew they really didn't want to see me and that I was on my way to Urgent Care.
I arrived at the Urgent Care. I signed in after holding my breath and hoping they'd take my insurance -- new systems. They did. I heaved a sigh of relief and filled out the paperwork.
The waiting room was nice and orderly and they HGTV on TV. :)
They saw me in a timely fashion.
The people are all fantastic -- even after a very long day.
The rooms were clean.
They decided I did not have strep, but I have tonsillitis. Oh - and they need another culture to send out to the lab in case the rapid strep test is wrong. Yay. Another culture. What ever they wanted, I'd have given them at that point. My throat was on fire, I was fading fast, and I knew a prescription was on the horizon.
They gave me a prescription for the pain and a prescription for the inflamed tonsils.
There was a little bit of an issue at the CVS across the street, but it was all because of new systems - theirs and the doc's.
I came home. I took the medicine and went to bed.
Today I'm a whole lot better.
I knew if I could get ahead of it, I would be better. If I waited until Monday, I'd be on my rear end for the week.
I think I might need to find a doc who is open a little later, who is open on the weekends, and who doesn't leave the phone off the hook on Friday afternoons. Either that or I can just go to the Urgent Care... They really were awesome.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Wacky Wednesday

Wednesdays are simply busy.
They are also fun days for me.
In order for me to get where I need to go during Lent, I need to leave the house by 10:30am.  Today, this meant that I had to walk my 30 minutes, make cookies, make a lunch, and get my crocheting together by then. Normally, that's fine, but lately I've been waking up later than I'd like.  Today, my eyes popped open at 8am. I hit the ground running.
Needless to say, I made it out the door on time and to my errand destination. I didn't waste a single moment and made it to the church in time to prep some music for my Monday night choir before the service.
From the church - which I left 10 minutes early, I made it to the next church in time to prep music for that group. The ladies are amazing! I'm so impressed with them. I do think I'm going to have to move some people around before too long and I need to think about how to do that. I don't want anyone to be upset, but I think some are bored and some are overloaded. I need to fix that.

Tonight has been a quiet night filled with marking music, searching for a new afghan pattern, and thinking about what exciting stuff I can write here.

Wednesdays are busy - I'm just glad that by 6:05pm it's over and I can sit still.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Tuesday Trivia

1.  Laundry can be lucrative.
I made $1.23 today. I'm living large.

2.  I'm almost finished with a cream colored wool shawl. I don't know who will end up with this one, but I like it very much. I think the next one of these I make, I'll use a little larger hook. I think it needs to be "lighter" or "airier", you know?

3.  Tomorrow morning, I've got to get up and get my rear in gear. I've got to walk my 30 minutes on the treadmill. (I've walked every day since I got it and I don't want to skip any days unless I'm not home.) Then I need to make cookies for the lunch after the noon time service.  I've got to go to Walmart and get some ibuprofen. We are almost out and my sciatica has been acting up a bit the past couple of weeks -- of course days in a row standing for long periods of time certainly don't help the situation. I want to make the noontime service, have lunch with the ladies, and stay for prayer shawl group.  Then I have my Chime group later that afternoon -- I got some awesome music that I'd like to have them try. I just love this group! After that, I'm going to come home and collapse.

4.  Tonight I gave the cat her second dose of Zithromax. It helped a lot that Mr. was available to hold her down while I squirted the stuff down her throat. She was not impressed with our team work, but we sure were.  I think she is getting better. She didn't sneeze as much today and when she did, there weren't huge green gobs shooting out her nose. That in itself is a good thing.

5.  Today Gram and I hung all the pictures and towel bars in the guest room and new bathroom. Grandpa let me use his amazing power drill and screwdriver combo tool thingy. The power almost went to my head -- I felt like I could host a home improvement show! Woo hoo!


Monday, March 09, 2015

It's Monday...

And today I had to take 3 critters to the vet for checkups.  That would be 2 cats and one dog. The dog is the easiest. You put a leash on him, open the car door, he jumps in, and life is good.
That is not exactly how it works with the cats.
Angel is old. She is 12. She knows that when the carriers come out, nothing good can come of it. She sees them and heads for the hills.  I found her on my bed. She must have thought her appointment was after lunch or something. Silly cat!
Finding her was the easy part. Getting her into the carrier was something to see. I tried to wrap her in a a towel and she would have nothing of it. She squirmed and the towel went one way while she went the other. I'm fast. I caught her again. I tried again. She put her feet out so that she wouldn't fit through the carrier door. She grabbed the couch arm on the way down. She hissed. She cried. She went in. It wasn't pretty, but in she went.
Mini was next. I found her on LLB's bed. I scooped her up in a towel, brought her downstairs, aimed her head towards the carrier and in she went. No fuss. No muss. No antics. No tears.
I put them in the car.
I'm sure the neighbors could hear Angel's protests. Mini joined in half heartedly. (I think she just wanted to get it over with so she could come home.) Angel's protests continued all the way to the vet. It was pretty funny.
The appointment was uneventful. They both went into their carriers without protest after they'd been poked and prodded. It was almost anticlimactic.
They are all home. They are all napping - sleeping it off so to speak... Because, a trip to the vet is rough on them, you know.

Friday, March 06, 2015

And we're off...

Like a herd of turtles...

We are headed to VMI for our last Open House of the year. This is when we talk nervous parents of determined VMI bound kids off the edge and gently tell parents of procrastinators that they are virtually too late to the party.

It's fun to meet new people. Diplomacy is an art form, and we've perfected it. We've figured out how to tell parents that the VMI experience will be "hard" (ie: miserable, awful) for their kid the first year, but that it gets better (ie: they are rats no more). We can tell them that their kid will always find something to eat in Crozet (ie: the food is not your home cooking). We can tell them that their kid will not be an engineering major and play NCAA football or basketball because there just aren't enough hours in the day (ie: their kid isn't an athletic Einstein).

We enjoy promoting VMI while giving parents a real sense of what it's like to have a kid there. We can't tell them everything, because that wouldn't leave any surprises... and we can't have that!

We'll catch you all on the flip side!

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Yay... it's snowing.

We are getting a lot of snow today. My dearest BFF from up north was flying through DC yesterday and got stuck due to mechanical difficulties. So, she came out here to stay with us for the night. She woke up to this:

a bunch of snow, a rental car, and a long drive to the airport.  (As of this moment, she is on the plane headed home.)

We have about 8 inches on the ground.
Mr is out snowblowing. I'm practicing being a shut-in. I've got my TV, my iPad, my crochet project, and my cup of chai. I think I've got the shut-in thing almost prefect, but I may need a little more practice to be sure... 

Zeb likes to be out, but this was a bit deep even for him.

Mini spent the day like this:

She definitely has the shut-in thing perfected. 

Wednesday, March 04, 2015

I love my Chime Ladies!

We had our second rehearsal today.
I gave them a pretty tough "reach" piece to try. They did very well. I think the only issue was the counting as there was a lot of syncopation. Next week, I am going to go over the counts for the measures that are troublesome and have them write the counts in. I'm sure that will solve a lot of it. We went over the easier pieces and they did a super job! They even got a lot of the dynamics down pat!

I ordered some music to check out with this group in mind. One of the pieces is Frozen -- although, based on the weather we've been having, I may want to wait on that until next winter...

My ladies are super.
I'm so glad they asked me to help them with their choir.

Monday, March 02, 2015

Ice, Ice...

This weather is getting really old really fast.
I'm tired of worrying about getting from point a to point b before everything turns into a skating rink. I'm tired of feeding the wood stove and I'm tired of listening to it, too.

The back deck is a mess... that's not water, my friends. That is serious ice.



The daffodils and the front porch are encased in ice.


I am ready for some 75 and sunny... Heck, I'll take 50 and rainy.

Sunday, March 01, 2015

Calm Down!

Oh please... if I get that by voice or in print from either one of my offspring ever again, I'm going to reach through the electronic device and throttle them.



When our children are on the road - whether driving themselves or being driven by someone else -- by either an "old" person or a contemporary - we worry. We don't fret, but we are concerned. We are worried about the other crazies who are going too fast for the conditions, we are worried that the driver may be getting tired, we are worried that it's dark and hard to see -- and the list goes on. We don't fret, but we do watch the clock and wait for the text that says they are where they are going.

Unfortunately, sometimes our offspring don't realize that we aren't fretting. We are just wondering how things are going. They find it irritating and tell me to "Calm Down". And this is when I wish a child just like them on them. (My sincere apologies to their future spouses.)  And I secretly hope that someday - maybe, just maybe - they'll call me and tell me they get it.

Until then, I'll work on finding a way to reach through those electronic devices and throttle them.


FYI: I was always calling my parents and telling them I got where I was going - on someone's house phone because that's all we had. To this day, I make sure my parents know where I am -- because I know they don't fret, but they do worry. (I can honestly say that FB has been a godsend. I post my location and road conditions if they are bad, and they know where we are and when we should walk in the door.)