Wednesday, May 28, 2003

 

Grr...page isn't viewing right, maybe another post will help.

Dawn posted this at 2:23 PM.

 

Whew! Has it been that long? Time really flies. This month I am so busy. Last weekend my sister and her two children came for a visit. Before that I was sick with pnemonia for a week. I wasn't even at home that week. I had started coughing the saturday before mothers day, started a fever on mother's day. Then we went to visit James' parents and James left me there on Wednesday just after I'd been to the doctor and got the diagnosis. I stayed until he came to get me the next week(we were planning on another return visit anyway). It worked out great 'cause Grammy and Grampa both got to help me out taking care of Xander and they got to spend some good quality time with him too.

So, this week, not only am I getting ready for the carnival and kick-off of the summer program next week, some of James' relatives are coming for a visit Monday and Tuesday we're all going to the beach. James' cousin Todd, his wife Susan and their two children will be staying with us Monday thru Wednesday. Not only that, but my mom has to be at the airport 1 1/2 hours away. She'll be flying to California to visit reletives for a week. That leaves my Downs-syndrome cousin Bruce with us for the week too. He's not difficult to take care of, but he is another mouth to feed and body to bathe. He can pretty much do everything for himself except cook and help get in and out of the tub.

Also, My sister brought me a laptop computer. When I told her what happened to my other one, she said that she had been planning to sell hers for $300 minus the cost of a new battery. She said that the battery didn't last as long as she thought it should. I went in and changed the setting from 'Automatic' to 'Longest Life' and it lasts about as long as my old one did! I feel bad and would offer to pay her more money, (the final cost we decided was $180) but she ended up taking all my fish tanks and stands (except for Xander's 2.5 gal tank) and other fish paraphinalia (sp). She was excited that she could buy her 55 gallon tank with the money. She is starting to breed different fish as well as raise aquatic plants. I was a bit upset that James gave her all my stuff, at first, but then I realized I just don't have time to keep up the tanks anyway. Dee was telling me that I should put a beta in Xander's tank and she was telling me that it would only require changing the water so often and partial changes so often. But I don't even have that time.

Having this new laptop brings a mixture of feelings. I'm glad to have it, but at the same time I wish I had more time to use it for it's major intended purpose: writing. I'm frustrated with my writing right now. I feel like mine is flat, and not 'out of the box' type. Anyway, I'll not go there right now. No one likes a pity party....

I see my last post I was talking about Miss Kitty's kitties. She disappeared, reappeared kitty-less and it looked like she wasn't even nursing. So, I have no idea what happened to the kitties. She's not been around at all in a long while. Gimli started haning around a lot while he was sick. He started out coughing and acting like he had a hairball. I considered giving him something to help him out, but never got to it and he quit coughing. Then he started losing weight and his voice was hoarse. He was acting really sick too. If there had been a vet in town, I'd have taken him but the closest one is nearly an hour a way...plus we're trying to pay off bills and I didn't want any added expenses (my trip to the doctor cost $112!) But he seems fine now, although his voice seems to be a bit hoarse still, but I think he was that way before. He's been hanging around nearly all the time, which seems strange for a male cat to do.

Also, I noticed that I mentioned Xander being ready for a real bed. He did very well and surprised us all by taking to his bed from the start. He had trouble learning not to fall out for the first few weeks, but now he rarely falls out at all. We didn't put a railing by his bed since it is a very low bed anyway and we haven't had any trouble.

He gave us a real scare not long after that. He, as most toddlers will, trips a lot. One night, James was on the phone with my bro-in-law and sitting in a dining room chair. The chairs are metal and Xander tripped and hit his head on the square metal leg of the chair. I was a step behind him and picked him up seconds after he fell. Already there was a large welt growing on his forehead. I panicked and James said, "Uh, I gotta go," and hung up the phone. When I first looked at the bump, I thought his forehead was smashed in as well as the bump out. But when I looked again, I realized it was just his forehead wrinkled making it appear that there was an indention.

We live in a small town with no hospital. It was after 7 PM and I thought there was an after hours clinic in town. So we all got in the van and headed downtown. Every place was closed up. On the drive, I calmed down and told my self to calm Xander down. Before we made it back home, he'd calmed down and was signing on demand. I had gotten the idea to make sure he was coherent and his memory was intact. Every sign I asked him to do, he did and I felt relieved. I told James that he was coherent and was probably okay. When I looked back, Xander was signing 'hurt' and gingerly touched his head. We had just recently taught him 'hurt' and was surprised to see him say it on his own. I took it as a good sign.

Before we got home, I remembered that Xander's health insurance included a 24-hour 1-800 # for ask a nurse. I tried that and either was on hold or got cut off for the next 30 minutes. By this time Xander was running around like a crazy man from being so tired. I also tried calling friends or relatives, most of which were not at home. I talked to my mom about it and she said he was probably okay, but I still wanted to hear it from a doctor. So, I called the ambulance company and spoke to an EMT. She couldn't really give advice or diagnose over the phone, but I asked, "If this were your child and..." She said that if it were her child, she would just watch him through the night and not worry too much. Xander finally got to bed about 9:30 or 10 and I checked on him after 30 mins and an hour and most of the swelling had gone down, so I didn't worry. He did have a regular check up the next day and the doctor said it was fine. He said it might give him a black eye, but it didn't really. I was very relieved to see him be okay.

One more thing and then I think I've rambled enough. We had the computers go down at the library recently and they got a man from the internet provider to check things out. He ended up fixing a BUNCH of computers and he still has more work to do. I asked him about the possibility of setting up my home computer to access the internet on the library account so I could work from home (the library gets free internet from them) and he said that would be fine. He also said that he would check out my computer and help get it working optimally. Then I told him about my laptop and how I wanted to be able to log on to the library network to search card catalog, so he said he would do that too. I'm really glad, because my computer at work is old and can only have windows and word on it. I've been wanting one that would get on to their network and I think this will work out great because the laptop can come home with me and I can work on the files at home too. No more disks to tote back and forth spreading viruses everywhere! That's another thing...I really need to get an updated virus checker too...

Anyway, TaTa for now!

Dawn posted this at 2:17 PM.