Recession Reader

A healthy dose of reality during the 100 Book Challenge?  (This is a book Caroline brought home to read as part of the reading challenge that circulates among her and her classmates.) I was a little bothered by it, to be honest.  In the book the dad loses his job, the family has to move and sleeps in their car one night before going to stay with the grandmother.  As Caroline was reading it, I assured her that a parent losing a job does not automatically mean that the family will have to move and that in most cases the family will NOT have to spend the night in their car.  Good heavens!!  When a parent loses his or her job, the last thing they need is a child petrified that they will lose their house and have to live in their car.  Oh and the original publishing date is 1994 so not just for this recession.

A Fungus Among Us

It's official....Caroline has ringworm on her leg. (Don't get too grossed out at the name, I honestly didn't know much about it either.  Click on the link to read more, it's really just the same fungus that causes athlete's foot, but NOT on the foot.  No worms involved....)

Anyway, last week I noticed this rash on her leg and figured maybe she'd gotten a weird bug bit or something, put some hydrocortisone on it and forgot about it because she didn't say anything more.  Then when she was getting her bath on Monday, I saw it again and noticed it was no better and maybe even a little worse.  Crap.  Glad that it hadn't spread, but dismayed it was no better.  I immediately took a photo and sent it to my mom (my resident nurse on call) since I wouldn't see her again for a few days.  She was having trouble getting email at the time so I then posted it to my friends on my online mom message board and within a few minutes I got a pretty definitive answer - ringworm!  (The women that diagnosed it are both moms who are physicians that I've known for several years, so I absolutely trust their opinions.)  And then the next morning I got my mom's response - probably ringworm (and what a great photo of it, at that!).  My doctor mom friends both recommended an OTC athlete's foot/ringworm cream so we started with that right away.  It still doesn't look much better but it can take a few weeks to kill off!  But if it's no better in a week, I'll definitely get her into see the doctor because she might need an oral treatment.

And then just a few minutes ago Nurse Wonderful (Caroline's school nurse) called to ask if I knew that the itchy spot on Caroline's leg was ringworm.  I laughed and said yes (and played along since this was the first in person diagnosis. Isn't the internet great?)  She said as long as we're treating it, it's fine for Caroline to be at school but since Caroline was wearing a dress today that she was going to put a dressing on it because she was having a hard time not itching it.   Poor kid.  She also reminded me to keep a look out for other spots on Caroline and on the other 2 kids, but given what Dr. Sears says, it's only mildly contagious so hopefully this will be it.  (Thank you to Nurse Wonderful for always being so sweet to Caroline!)

What's weird about the whole thing is that it's on Caroline's inner upper, thigh and not on some exposed spot on her arm or hand or something.  I mean, how did it get there????  Fingers crossed this cream clears it up soon!

Mystery Smell SOLVED!

Oh my goodness, this has been driving me MAD for over a week now.  Mad, I tell you.

For a while now, I've noticed a strange smell coming out of the lower corner cupboard that sits between the sink and the stove.  It's a loooooooong cupboard that we use to hold a lot of our smaller appliances and a few other odds and ends.  You know, crockpots, blenders, immersion blender......

But then within the past 2 weeks the smell suddenly got much stronger - to the point that I hated opening the door because it smelled so bad.  It wasn't any kind of rotten smell, more like a musty, dirty smell.  Reminded me a little bit of how old dish rags smell, but not quite.  Last Wednesday when I was off work, I took everything out, wedged myself back in there and couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from.  It's open at the very back in this one spot and I wondered if it could have been the sink drain pipe that was causing the smell.  Jason did the same thing later that night and stuck his nose back there and couldn't smell anything.  We also could smell it, although not as intensely, in the cupboard under the sink - but there's a small air passage between the two so it would make sense that the smell would travel.

Still no ideas, we kind of tried to ignore it but the smell seemed to be getting worse.  Ugh.  Jason was convinced maybe we had a small leak under the sink and that the smell wasn't as bad under there because the dishwasher detergent somehow was absorbing the smell.  I didn't agree with that deduction because the smell was SO intense in the other cabinet.  Jason even had his dad poke around in there today and he couldn't figure anything out.  He was starting to have worries that maybe there was some kind of nasty leak in the wall that we couldn't see yet.  Great.....

Well, we decided tonight to clean everything out again and for Jason to get back in there with a mirror and try looking around this one edge.  So he's wedged all the way back in the cupboard with his legs sticking out while the kids are trying to climb in on top of him and I'm trying to shoo them away.  I walked over to the table where all the cabinets contents were sitting and I noticed I could still smell the smell so I started sniffing things.  I could still smell it lightly on a few of the items as I kind of expected but then I smelled the box that contains my immersion blender.  EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!  That was it.  It had to be it.  Jason got up and smelled it - yep, he agreed, that was it.  But so weird.  It's the original Braun cardboard box that the immersion blender came in almost 10 years ago as a wedding gift.  It's in pretty good shape - in fact if I had to ship it back to the company or something, I could.  There's no wet marks on it or anything, it just stinks!  Reeks even.  Of all the things......  So we did an experiment and closed the cupboard back up without anything in it and the smell didn't come back.  So we disposed of the box (duh!) and put everything back.  I am washing all the parts to the immersion blender though.

What's funny is that my MIL said today that the smell reminded her of wet cardboard - she was totally right about the cardboard - I'll hire her to be my sniffer in the future.  I'm so glad that's solved - it's really been bugging me.  And of all places you don't want a stench, it's in the kitchen.  So watch out for old cardboard, even cardboard that doesn't look bad.

So then, once the problem was figured out we let the kids play in the cabinet.:

When it was time to put things away, Caroline and Bryce got out but Piper had decided to take up residence. She was SO angry that it was time to get out and crawled all the way to the back to get as far away from me as possible.  She screamed, she cried, she flailed.  It was so hard getting her out because it was so easy to hurt her.  She kept throwing herself around and then when I finally got her close to the door, she spread her arms out so it was hard to get her back through the door.  Nothing like pulling your baby out of a cabinet.

Here's What We're NOT Naming Our Baby

Yes, it's 2008. And yes, the 2008 Olympic Games will begin shortly after #3 is born, but guess what, we're NOT naming her Aoyun.

What is Aoyun? Well, in Chinese, it means "Olympic Games" and apparently there have been over 4000 Chinese babies named Aoyun this year already! Talk about excitement for the Olympics, huh?

Chinese Babies Named 'Olympic Games'

So folks, you can cross Aoyun off your lists as a potential baby name for us since I know several of you who are very curious to know this little girl's name. But we're not budging. However, I do have it on a certain authority that Miss Caroline might be helping us to pick her middle name. Jason told me the other day that he helped to pick his baby brother's middle name and Caroline has been asserting a certain name lately that she thinks would be a good pick for her little sister's middle name. And guess what, it's an ACTUAL name and nothing weird like Splinter. Fancy that!

Beating Myself Up

I guess I've been sleeping pretty well because yesterday morning I woke up to a surprise. I rolled over and rubbed my eye and felt something weird on the bridge of my nose and it kind of stung. I got up and looked in the mirror and down the left side of the bridge of my nose and right on top of the bridge, were two large scratches. What in the world did I do in my sleep???? I know they weren't there when I washed my face right before going to sleep and I don't recall feeling any pain while I was sleeping. I'm pretty sure I just scratched myself with my fingernails - fingernails I recently filed down a good bit.

At that point, they weren't really red, just kind of crusty (gross) and sore. So I put some antibiotic ointment on them and went about my day because they were too fresh to put any make up on. I showed the women I worked with and they all got a good laugh out if it because it really does look like I got hit or scratched by something and that I should clearly remember it.

Then, by this morning, they've scabbed up more and are quite red. Bryce even thought it was bleeding. Grrrrrreat. Everyone keeps asking me what happened and can't believe I have no idea. And because of where they are, I keep inadvertently scratching them or pulling at them when I rub my eye or when I was drying my face this morning. I just keep forgetting, but then I also keep seeing the one out of the inner corner of my left eye and it's driving me nuts.

So if you see me, you'll know I haven't been in any accident and no one has been pushing me around. I just had some kind of violent night's sleep on Wednesday into Thursday.

My Beautiful Mommy?????

This is just plain weird.

I mean, if you have the money and want to get a little work done on yourself, I guess that's fine, but is it odd to anyone else that there is a CHILDREN'S book on preparing a child for mommy getting a nose job?????? Are they sending the message that mommy isn't beautiful before the surgery? Although I guess there are children's books out there for pretty much any other situation so I'm sure there's a market for it out in Beverly Hills or something. And it's weird that this particular book seems to choose a nose job for the hypothecial plastic surgery rather than something like a tummy tuck that a mommy might want as a result of having her children. I'm sure if mommy had a tummy tuck, there's going to a lot more recovery for her than a nose job. Wonder if there's one out there for mommy getting her boobs done? I'd like to see them explain THAT to kids in a book.

How Odd

I did a google for "Caroline and Bryce" and found this image:



Now what's weird about it is that both the kids' names are on it but ALSO that mine and Jay's wedding anniversary (July 15) is on it as well. Eerie, don't you think? (We're not naming #3 Jorgensen though.)

Oh and I know, I should be working, right? Easier said than done when something is broken to prevent all matriculation and enrollment. Sweet that it's two days before our census date....

Naked Hand

If you forget to put on your engagement/wedding rings, does your hand feel naked all day?

I usually take my rings off when I get home in the evenings for a multitude of reasons (I don't like it when my hands get wet w/ rings on and they are often wet w/ the kids, I don't like to exercise with them on, and I am constantly knocking the diamond on things since I'm left handed and it's my dominant hand.) So about 99.9% of the time, I remember to put them back on in the morning before work. But today, I forgot - probably because I was talking to Bryce who was laying in my bed watching SuperWhy as I was finishing getting ready. And now I have naked hand! It's such an odd feeling even though I have plenty of time not wearing rings, not wearing them at work feels really weird. I hope no one tries to pick me up thinking I'm not married. Or that I'm a single mom of two.....now that's a laugh.

Too tired for a real post....

It's been a busy weekend and I'll probably update more tomorrow but I just HAD to share this very odd site with everyone:

The Pee & Poo Shop

Just goes to show you there really is a shop out there for EVERYTHING.

And given Caroline's interest in integrating the word "poop" into all of her stories lately, I'm sure she'd be interested - especially in the panties. But given the fact that we are trying to keep her potty trained, we'll keep the pee and poo where they are supposed to be - the toilet.

I Dreamed....

that I wrote a blog in my sleep. It was so real that I had to come onto my blog this morning and make sure I didn't actually go downstairs and blog in my sleep. Thankfully, it was just a dream. Gosh, can you imagine how weird THOSE ramblings would have been?

Happy Friday everyone!