Socks, a Cruise, and a Lion

About a month ago, I bought a 6-pack of athletic socks. They have turned out to be the most ridiculous socks I have ever purchased.

You see, each pair, while similar is not exactly the same. One pair has pink heel/toe with thick gray stripe in the middle. One pair has pink heel/toe with three thin stripes in the middle. One pair has gray heel/toe with pink stripe in the middle. You get the picture. So, invariably, as I match up socks from the laundry, I match them incorrectly. I mean, seriously. Laundry is bad enough with 5 people who insist on wearing a different outfit every day. The last thing I need is a project when it comes to MATCHING SOCKS.

And that's not all. Each matching pair is marked with an "R" on one sock and an "L" on the other, presumably denoting right versus left. I can find no remarkable difference between the right sock and the left sock. Seems its only purpose is to give me another way to screw up the sock-matching endeavor.

Today, I wore one "thick-gray stripe" sock and one "thin-gray stripe" sock, BOTH right-footed.

I'm such a rebel.

Next topic.

On my way home from work, I heard a news story on the radio about the Carnival cruise ship that had been stranded without power for three days. The news reporter ended her report with the statement, and I quote (roughly), "If you're hungry, in need of a hot shower, and without A/C, let's just say these aren't the people to complain to."

What an outlandish statement.

Yes, I can just imagine this hypothetical conversation:

Laid-off electrician with family of four: Yeah, I've had a rough week. You know, I lost my job a few months ago, so my kids haven't eaten since lunchtime at school on Friday. And, all the utilities are shut off in my house and I'm in danger of going into foreclosure this month. Sure has been tough.

Stranded cruise ship rescue-ee: OMG. I totally know what you're talking about. I was, like, stranded on this cruise with ZERO POWER, and the only thing we had to eat was what the military flew in for us, and.... get this... we could NOT take hot showers!! I know! Can you believe it?! Nothing can take away those painful memories, but I guess the voucher for a free replacement cruise will just have to do.

And finally, on a completely unrelated note, here is Sophie's impression of a lion:

Scared?

Don't worry, she's friendly.

See?

Not for the Weak of Stomach

When I was about 9 years old, my parents surprised my sister and I with some stuffed animal dolls. You see, back in those days, whenever we visited my dad at his store (I think it was Hook's back then), she and I would play with these Baby Muppet dolls; her with Kermit and me with Miss Piggy.

One day, we were visiting dad at the store, and to my chagrin, there were no Baby Miss Piggy dolls left. For some reason, this translated to utter heartbreak for me. I was inconsolable.

Turns out, mom and dad had purchased the last Baby Miss Piggy, as well as a Baby Kermit, and surprised Susan and I with them one summer day as we were getting ready to leave on vacation. (I'm sure they also bought Courtney something, but I don't recall. I mostly paid attention to her to torture her in some way.)

So, we loaded up the family in our blue 80-something Dodge Ram Van, with the middle seats taken out so we could spread a sleeping bag on the floor for all the kids to play on. Those were the days when children wearing seat belts was about as common as a chicken in a ninja suit. Susan and I had our new Baby Muppet dolls and I was ecstatic. We were heading up to Cando, North Dakota to stay with my grandma and grandpa and visit random other assorted family members.

Well, by the time we pulled into the Parkers' driveway in Cando, I was horribly, awfully sick. It was the sickest I remembered being in my young life. I was throwing up constantly and was essentially confined to bed as I was too weak to do anything else. For the first two and a half days of our North Dakota vacation, the most fun I had was playing with the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls in my grandma's spare bedroom whenever I gathered up enough energy to sit up in bed.

There are a few things I remember vividly about this vacation:

1. It was the debut of "Spike", the dog that belonged to Great-Uncle Ray (for the life of me I'm not sure how he is actually related to the family, I just remember him as the old guy that lived in a rickety little house out by Uncle Mike's barns on the farm). I'd never met Spike and I remember being insanely jealous of my sisters getting spend time with this fabulous dog. Courtney would come up to my room and tell me all about Spike, and she made him out to be this SuperDog, the coolest dog in all the universe. To this day, when I think about Spike, I recall him as the smartest, most awesomest dog that ever existed.
2. One time my Uncle Mike asked me if I wanted lemonade or orange juice to drink. I asked for lemonade. He brought me back up a glass of lemonade with orange-ade ice cubes. When he told me that, I nodded sickly, and then left that glass sitting on the bedside table in disgust. I could not imagine drinking it, but I couldn't bear telling my beloved Uncle Mike that I didn't want it. A little later, when I gave in because I was so darn thirsty, it was the most delicious beverage I had ever encountered.
3. I despised Baby Miss Piggy. I assume I associated this god-awful sickness with this brandnew stuffed animal. At one point, I had to switch guest bedrooms because other people were coming over and needed the room I had been staying in. I purposefully left Miss Piggy behind. A few hours later, someone noticed my new toy had been left in the old room, and brought it over to me. I remember feeling physically ill (or more physically ill, I guess), just upon laying eyes on that blasted doll. I dared not tell anyone how much I loathed that stuffed animal....I had been thrilled about it just days before, after all....but even now I can't think about baby Miss Piggy without feeling nauseated.

Fast forward to twenty-some years later in the Davidson household. This week has been filled with fevers, abdominal cramps, cold sweats, headaches, and bodily fluids erupting from any number of cavities. We've been miserable. Sophie has managed to stay healthy. The rest of us.... not so much. Unfortunately, Sophie is pretty much the only one that can't do anything for herself (as in, feeding, bathing, clothing, etc.) The only one that feels like getting up and around and doing things is, sadly, not quite self-sufficient enough to be counted on. ["Sophie! Go throw a frozen pizza in the oven, will ya? Oh, and go ahead and change your own diaper, and give Noah a bath while you're at it. Thanks. You're a doll."]

Noah's been in a pretty bad way the last couple days, up all night the other night vomiting, and some bouts of diarrhea. He's been sleeping on the couch quite a bit, mostly because he just doesn't have the energy to do much else.

Last week, Ben bought Toy Story 3 which had just come out on DVD. The boys had seen it in the theater but are super-excited to have it at home. It has been playing in the living room an awful lot these days.... the kids don't feel much like playing, and Ben and I are too sick to care that they started the movie up again.

So, I'm starting to wonder if Noah (who has watched Toy Story 3 three times in the past 2 days) will start to associate this new movie with this dreadful sickness, much as I did with poor Baby Miss Piggy. I certainly hope not. But this kid hates being sick. For instance, yesterday, after spending more time with his head in the toilet, he turned to me and said, "stop saying I'm sick!".... as if my announcement of him being sick was somehow preventing his recovery. He thinks he can will himself to stop vomiting.

The other night, at 3:30 in the morning, as he is dry heaving in the trash can yet again, he looks up at me and says in his most forlorn voice, "frowing up is hard work...."

You said it, kid.

Don't Eat the Yellow Stuff

We had our first snow of the season last night. And it was actually real snow, not just flurries, that stuck around until morning. There wasn't a ton of it, but it was perfect for building a snowman.

As we're playing around outside, Ben and I taking video, Travis says, "Oh... you're taking pictures. That means we can make a blog about this."

So, Travis, here it is.

Rolling snowballs

Hmmmm, I wonder what Sophie's doing over there....

Eating snow, of course.

We could not get her to keep her mittens on. They were much too cumbersome. How did we expect her to pick up good handfuls of snow for eating with those darn mittens?

Putting on the head

The finished product

We gave him a hat. Travis named him Snowy.

Noah loved throwing snowballs at the dog. And at his dad. And at me. And at the snowman. Let's just say Noah's throwing arm got a good workout.

Here's Noah, after being forced to come back inside.

And here's Travis. He was so thrilled about Snowy that you couldn't pry this smile off his face with a crowbar.

Conversations with a 22-and-a-half-month-old

Sophie: Fower Woke!

Me: What's that, sweetie?

Sophie: A fower woke!!! You hear it?

Me: Fower woke? Flowerwork? Flower? A... what?

Sophie: Fowerwoke! You hear it? You hear it, Mom? Fowerwoke!

Me: Oh! You mean firework? Do you hear fireworks?

Sophie: Yep. Fowerwoke.

Me: Where? Where are the fireworks?

Sophie: [pointing at the basement door] Fowerwoke.... hiding ... in da ... door....

Me: Fireworks are hiding in the door??

[Travis and Noah erupt into laughter]

Sophie: Yep. [pointing at the ceiling] Uptare. Fowerwoke.

Me: Fireworks, hiding in the door, upstairs?

Sophie: Yep.

Me: Oh. Okay. Whatever you say, sweetheart.

Sophie: CROCODYE-O!



P.S. Sophie's going through a crocodile obsession. Not sure where it came from. Crocodiles are randomly inserted into everyday conversations.

Actually, Its Freezing

After two days of intensive study, our mechanic has finally determined that the problem with the Galant is a defective heat actuator. Which means that while it is piping hot under the hood, the mechanism for pumping that heat from the engine to the interior has gone kaput.

My car is freezing.

Unfortunately, it will take 5 days for the part to get in, so I have to drive it for at least another few days under the risk of hypothermia. Weather forecast for the next five days? Highs in the 30s or low 40s, lows in the 20s, chance of snow on two of the next three days.

Come on, Indian summer, throw me a bone here.

Plumb Crazy

So, trick-or-treating went well.

On Friday night, I took the kids to a nearby "Trunk or Treat". Ben wasn't feeling well so he stayed home. I'll admit I was worried that it might get overwhelming.... open parking lot, three young kids, sugar overload. But the kids were awesome and we had a great time. I got lots of compliments on the Mario and Luigi costumes.

Saturday, Ben and I went to a Murder Mystery Halloween party while my mom watched the kids. I'd never been to a murder mystery party before, it wasn't exactly what I expected. But we had fun.

And of course, we did actual trick-or-treating on Sunday, which was also a success. Sophie insisted on carrying around Noah's plunger accessory, which was fine, because Noah decided he really didn't want it. But little princess Sophie looked a little silly.

One of Ben's co-workers said, "you need to buy that poor girl a wand!" Little did they know how possessive that little princess was of her plunger. She had set it down at one neighborhood porch (in order to get her hands on some candy), and without realizing it, I had ushered her off the porch sans plunger. She started to have a meltdown, I thought because she had wanted more candy. I picked her up, and she started wailing, "myyyyy plunger.... [sniffle sniffle]".

An odd mixture of girly and tomboy, she is. How else can you describe an outfit that includes both a tiara and a plumbing device?

Video of our Halloween excursions here.

Painting Pumpkins

We had our pumpkin decorating party last weekend. It was a good time, although a few little hiccups arose, what with Ben's less-than-stellar condition, and the uncooperative weather. We ended up moving the actual decorating inside due to the spotty rain. Afterwards, it did clear up some so the kids could play outside. At least, those that were still around and still having fun.

At the "little kids" table, bring on the decorating!

Riley hard at work, stringing beads on pipecleaners for his pumpkin-dreadlocks

Megan, intensely studying her design implementation

Cory and Blane, our only carvers of the day

Noah's finished pumpkin. The side he's not showing you looks a little more interesting.

Colin and his creation. Is it true what they say about people and their pumpkins looking alike?

Travis and his pumpkin, "death by stickers"

I didn't get a picture of Sophie and her pumpkin. Rest assured, she had a good time.

The Langley boys

The kids had fun. So did Justin, seen here preparing to pelt Noah with a ball.

Travis tackling Blane. Or trying to, at least.

Classic Erin pose

Noah, "helping Erin" retrieve a stray ball

Sophie, loving on a ladybug

Happy Birthday to Me

O. M. G.

What a day today was.

First, let me give you a brief background of the weekend:

• Friday: Ben stayed home from work with chills, possible fever, and killer headache. Friday evening, no better -- any movement (i.e., moving his eyeballs) caused debilitating pain. Took him to the ER Friday night. One CT scan, much bloodwork, and a spinal tap later, and they send him home with diagnosis of probable sinus infection with antibiotics and assorted pain/nausea meds.
• Saturday: Pumpkin decorating party. Obviously, with Ben in his condition, we considered cancelling it. But, he felt better when the meds were kicked in (and then was back to lying motionless in bed or recliner when meds wore off), so we decided to give it a go. (Plus, I had put in a ton of work for the party and it was just too painful to consider calling it off.) Fun times, pictures to come. But, exhausting.
• Sunday: Mostly recovery/cleanup from the party. Ben was mostly the same -- okay when the pain meds were working, but then he would try to do something, would overdo it, and he'd be back to his incapacitated state. I took the kids to local park to meet up with Travis's little Kindergarten buddy, Evan.
• Monday: More of the same for Ben. Another day off work for him. Doesn't seem to be getting much better.

So then we get to today. Ben decides to try to make it to work. Tuesday is normally my early-morning-workout day, but I agreed to put the workout off until lunch so I could take the kids to my mom's and Ben could get an earlier start to get caught up at work. As it turns out, by the time he drove into work, he was back to debilitating headaches, and could only get relief from lying down. Spent most of the morning in the nurses office. More on that later.

I went into work, got some stuff done, and then headed to the courthouse to report for jury duty. Meanwhile, I am hearing about tornado watches and warnings going on, so before heading over to the courthouse (which is literally across the street from my office, I stare at it every day from my office window), I called them to make sure it was still on.

It was.

To the courthouse, up to the 2nd floor. Once there, this guy says, "hey, everyone has to go downstairs to the shelter because of the tornado warning...." I'm looking around, trying to figure out what to do, and this other guy that is checking people in for jury duty says, "no, go ahead and come in here, sign in, and sit down," so I do. Turns out I am potential juror number 13, I should have taken that as an omen for how this day was going to turn out.

I sit down, there are about 10 other people there. There are spots for 30 total jury pool members. One other guy comes in after me, and then we sit there for literally half an hour, with no one else coming in, and no representatives of the court to be found. At one point, a lady went to go find out what was going on, and the doorway to the rest of the courthouse had been shut and she couldn't find a way out.

Weird.

After 40 minutes or so, the guy that had been checking us in comes back, and two other potential jurors shuffle in. They had been in the basement, with the rest of the courthouse, due to the tornado warning.

Yes. They had left us jurors upstairs, alone, while they evacuated to the basement.

Shortly after that, they called us into the courtroom. The honorable judge addressed us, and proceeded to explain that apparently at some point during the madness, the door to the courthouse had been locked. (That's apparently how they handle weather-related emergencies....lock out anyone who might be seeking shelter.) Thus, other potential jurors attempting to report for duty would have essentially been turned away. There were only 14 of us there. The judge explained that, rather than waste our time and his only to find out they didn't have enough acceptable jurors to proceed, that we could go ahead and go. Consider our civic duty served.

I was okay with that. This was a horrible week for me to have to be out of work, with tons of deadlines needing to be resolved prior to 11/1.

So I leave the courthouse and head back across the street to my office. The winds were unbelievable. Had I had an umbrella, it would have been ripped to shreds, judging by what happened to potential juror #2, who was walking back to the building next to me.

Up to my office on the 4th floor. The elevator door opens, and I notice the lobby is dark. Not a good sign. Yup, sure enough, enter the office and it is dead empty. Clearly, they have evacuated for the tornado. I head downstairs to the basement and connected with my team. Indeed, the tornado warning is still in effect for our area. I was down there for about 40 minutes before being able to head back up to get some work done.

On a side note, THANKS, St. Joe County Circuit Court, first for leaving me on the 2nd floor of a building while you safely removed all your employees to the basement, and second for releasing me into the streets of downtown during a posted tornado warning.

Not long after I get back to work, Ben calls to inform me that our family doc has recommended he go back to the ER, and needs me to drive him there. First, because he has intense pain when he stays in an upright position for any length of time, and second because he had gotten a ride home and his truck was still at work.

Left work and took Ben to the ER. Spinal tap on Friday's ER visit had led to spinal headache from CSF leak. Treatment: Blood patch, which means taking blood from his hand and injecting it into his spine via epidural, so the clotting features of the blood essentially "patch" the leak. Three hours later, and Ben is good as new.

Meanwhile, I headed back to work and tried to get as much done as possible. Left the office at 4:55, went to the gym for my twice-delayed workout, and finally made it home.

With all the stress/sickness, Ben had not been able to get my birthday present. But I did get a cookie-cake from Ben and the kids, see above. All is good.

P.S. A funny story from the weekend, on Friday night when it was determined I would need to take Ben to the ER, I called our roomer Justin, who was at his fiance's house, to see if they could hang out at our place instead of hers, thus I could put the kids to bed and leave for the ER. I had put on some sweats and was randomly wearing a T-shirt from the high school Ben works at. Ben, who had been dealing with the shivers, was wearing his track sweats and hoodie from his days as track coach at said high school, plus he donned his jacket bearing the same high school's insignia. Justin came over, eyed us up and down in our matching attire, and said in a somewhat suspicious tone, ".... Are you guys going to the football game?.." As if the whole "going to emergency room for Ben's excruciating pain" was all a ruse so we could trick him into babysitting while we made our way to the Friday night football game.

P.P.S. For those of you keeping up with my workout regimen, I'm on top of it:

Friday, cross-training - 30 min of cycling

Saturday, rest

Sunday, 3 mile run through the neighborhood, complete with intervals

Monday, cross-training - weight lifting and 10 min of cycling

Tuesday, 2 mile run at the gym

Tomorrow = Rest!! Hooray!

Rural King to the Rescue

For a month now, I have been looking for overalls to complete the boys' Halloween costumes. Tried the thrift stores: Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army. Nothing. Tried the consignment stores: Once Upon a Child. Tried cheapo department store like Meijer and WalMart, nothing. Definitely did not want to spend real money on them but I was running out of choices. Finally, today, a friend suggested Rural King, my mom suggested Tractor Supply, so I decided to try that route. Took the kids to Rural King after work, bought 2 pairs of overalls. $14 each, more than I wanted to spend, but we'll deal with that. The sum total of everything else for all the kids' costumes was about $17, including shoes, so we're good.

Behold, Mario and Luigi:

To finish their costumes, we'll paint mustaches on their little faces, and we're contemplating spraying their hair black with this temporary hair dyeing spray I have leftover from last Halloween. My kids don't look very Italian.

Mario is currently obsessed with plunging the floor. Hopefully he'll get that out of his system by Halloween.

Sophie has a princess costume, as you can see she's not wearing it in this picture. I have yet to get her excited about her princess dress, for now she wants to put on plumber gloves and carry around a plunger and will have nothing to do with anything princess-y. We might be in trouble.

The Many Faces of Noah

Got to hang out with 'solo-Noah' last night. Travis was sick and went to bed early, Sophie has an earlier bedtime than the boys, so we had some nice time with Noah as our only child. He's a cute kid.

Happy Face

Kisses Face

Sad Face

Mad Face

Giggly Face

Shy Face

Sick Face

Surprised Face

Scared Face

Silly Face

Worried Face

Sweet Face

A Sparkly Mess

Today, as promised, the kids and I went to pick up some crafts for our pumpkin decorating party this weekend. We got yarn, pipe cleaners, beads, stickers, paints, and all sorts of fun stuff.

And sequins. Can't forget sequins.

I got home, opened up all the crafty things and, with Noah's help, sorted them into nice little buckets, bags and boxes for use at the party.

This afternoon, we went to pick up Travis from school. I got a message from the school just as I was getting ready to leave that Travis had been sent to the nurse because he was not feeling well and complained of a headache. I had planned on taking the kids to the library after school, but instead we just went straight home.

And good thing, because Travis threw up in the car on the way home. Tee-riffic.

So we get home, I give Travis a quick bath and give him some comfy clothes, then head out armed with spray cleaner and paper towels to clean up the car. Luckily the car seat took the brunt of the eruption, which means clean-up operation primarily consisted of removing the cover and putting it through the wash. So, after about 10 minutes of cleansing, I headed back in. I walked right by the toy room and made a beeline for the laundry room to dump in the car seat cover and Travis's clothes.

Travis, curled up on the floor in the toy room, says, "um, Mom? Sophie did something....."

Never quite knowing what to expect when I hear this, I ventured into the toy room.

Dear Sophie had emptied my box of sequins all over the floor.

Noah walks in, looks at my face, looks back at the floor, and says, "Oh my. That is a sparkly mess."

Exactly.

Noah was actually a huge help in cleaning up the sequins, while Sophie just wanted to pick them up and toss them around. And scream, repeatedly, her version of Noah's description: "Sparky muss! Sparky MUSS!"

At any rate, after some diligent effort, my sequins are now safely back in their box. And, save for some ancillary carpet lint, as good as new.

The girl who keeps losing her dog

Today's workout: 2.5 mile run. Tomorrow: Rest.

I think I can handle the resting part. Let's just see if my 1, 3, and 5 year olds also have that on their schedule. Methinks probably not.

But that's okay. I purposely scheduled Wednesday as my rest day since I don't make it near the gym on my day off. If I get in some bonus "chase the toddler" or "wrestle with the boys" exercise in on those days, I'm okay with it.

Let's see, other news.... Library day tomorrow, I think I'll renew my selection of book #2 in the Stieg Larsson trilogy since I didn't so much as crack it open in the three weeks I've had it.

We are hosting a pumpkin decorating party this weekend, so I may also stop by a craft store to pick up some fun punkin decorating crafts for the kids.

Thursday, back to the Boys and Girls Club for volunteering after two weeks off, due to surprise gas leak 2 weeks ago and then conference in Indy last week.

Tonight, Ben is at bowling. Thus, unavailable to assist in my doggie dilemma of the evening. I let Canada outside, and within 4 minutes, he had dug his way out from a loose spot in the fence. I thought I had successfully barricaded the area, but no such luck. I had to load up all three kids, who had been snacking on popcorn and were none too happy about being dragged away from said snack. So I loaded each one up with a little baggie of popcorn for the road, and hauled their little shoeless persons out to the truck for a neighborhood search and rescue. We drove around (Travis shouts, "Mom! A clue! There's some dog fur on the sidewalk!" He's really into the detective stuff these days), hollered for the dog, and ate popcorn. Drove back near the house and my nearby neighbor is on my porch with Canada on a leash. It's not his first time returning the dog to us, I'm ashamed to say. I try not to leave Canada outside unsupervised for vast lengths of time, but lets face it, reality sets in quickly. There's almost always someone asking for milk, or food, or to read a book, or play a game, or get their fave stuffed animal unstuck from the baby gate, or to get permission to knock their brother over the head with a baseball bat, you get the picture.

Okay, you got me, my kids don't ask permission to pummel each other with bats.

The other day, the boys were fighting while I was vacuuming, so I told them I'd vacuum up whoever didn't follow the rules. They giggled, we all joked about how sad Dad would be when he got home and couldn't find one of the kids because they were in the vacuum bag, and all was well. Later that night, Noah did something that annoyed Travis and he yelled, "Mom! Vacuum him!"

Lucky for Noah, I had already put the vacuum cleaner away. He got off easy.

Committed

I have decided to start training for a mini-marathon.

I've never run a mini before, actually never so much as a 5K in actual race form. The thing is, I have this love/hate relationship with running. You see, I love running.

Oh, and also, I hate running.

But I've decided to do this for two reasons: a) it has always been a kind of goal of mine, even if I haven't stated it in so many words; and b) I feel like it will, at least in the short-term, give me some purpose to my workouts, which will help to keep me focused. Maybe once I've done my first mini, Ill set some more race-type goals to keep myself moving forward.

I had actually signed up for a mini-marathon 2 years ago. I had my training schedule in place, and started on the first week of training. Then the shoe fell. And by shoe I mean Sophie, and by fell I mean implanted herself as an embryo within my uterus. So, the morning sickness began, and my training abruptly ended.

I've got my sights set on the Indy 500 Mini Marathon in May of 2011. Which means I have a whole 24 weeks to prepare. I did some research online, found an 18-week training program that made sense for me, and tweaked it a little to fit my plan. Yesterday, 2 mile run. Today, cross training in the form of weight lifting and light cycling at the gym.

Now that I have put this out in the blogosphere, I feel slightly more accountable. In 24 weeks, I'll either post a picture of myself crossing the finish line in Speedway, or I'll be sheepishly avoiding the topic. But I'm optimistic. I can do this.