RTT: stuffs

Tuesday! My favorite day of the week!I'm still rebelling it up with the super awesome, award winning vintner (that's a funny word-say it), Stacy.


*Nancy Grace is going to be on Dancing With The Stars. I think Tom Bergeron should quit.

*I was watching the news yesterday (not Nancy Grace) and they were interviewing some idiot guy in New Jersey.  He was griping and moaning about not having power.  He said he called his local company and they told him he would be without it for at least a week.  When he asked why he was told that they were working and he had to wait his turn.  He was positively indignant over having to wait his turn.  I though..well, I can't tell you exactly what I thought or it might burn up the interwebs (and my blog is not flagged for over 18 content), but basically I thought what an entitled jerk.  What makes his getting power any more important than other people?  Get over yourself.  Also, I've been through hurricanes where we didn't get power for 2+ weeks.  Somehow we survived.  Imagine that.

*Holy moly.  I was checking something a few minutes ago on my blog and went to the tags section.  I have 92 (NINETY-TWO!) tags for random Tuesday.  I can't believe it.  I've been doing this since 2009.  Shut the front door.

*The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a new album.  In the first video (remember those?) for the album, they're still pretty much all shirtless.  You gotta give them props for still looking good enough to go shirtless.  Anthony Keidis is still pretty buff and he's 48.  I so loved them when I was in college.  God, now I feel old.

*If a Vestal Virgin was no longer so, um virgin, she was buried alive in an unmarked grave.  Out over over 1000 (over the years) 18 were given this punishment.   Orgies at the palace?  Why not.  Murder in the Senate?  Absolutely!  Non-virgin Vestal Virgins?  Bury those whores alive!

*Yesterday the local public schools started.  In celebration of NOT going to ps, Indy and I went out to lunch and then had ice cream.  We do this every year.  He can't WAIT for ps to start.

*Han Solo is still sick, but getting better.  FINALLY.  Now if he'd only go back to sleeping through the night.  Sigh.

*In the movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a picture of Gandolf the Grey (Lord of the Rings) can be seen in Dumbledore's office.

*I know the hurricane was called Irene, but every time they said the name on TV, I sing Come on Eileen in my head.  I've been singing it A LOT.

*Weather!  Stupid, stupid weather.  It was in the 90's the other day and now it's in the 60's.  What do I wear????

*Zamboanga.  I wouldn't want to live there.  I just like the way it sounds.  

*Castle comes back on in 3 weeks!!!  I can't wait.

*My mom and step dad are fans of my weekly signs.  My step dad was in Lowes (their car could drive there on its own it's been there so often) and snapped this little gem for me.  What a bargain!

I wish you all a lovely Tuesday.  Click the sign at the top to link up and read other RTTs.

Things you don't want to hear from your hairdress

So in a previous post I mentioned that I dyed my hair and it turned red. Then I mentioned that I went to the beauty salon to get it fixed. Let's just say it didn't go well. Here are some things I heard that you should never hear from your hair dresser:

"Huh"

This was the first thing I heard. It did not bode well.

"That's interesting."

What's interesting?  What?  WHAT???

"How did that happen?"

Crap. This does not build confidence.

"I...don't...understand..."

What the hell? What's going on?? What did she do??? Let me see!

"I'm going to call my boss"

Holy #$%^ What did she do??

Yeah, so what she did was turn my hair freaking black with blue ends!!! I flipped out. Seriously. Isn't she supposed to know what she's doing?

The head hairdresser came (she was out) and was very concerned. They had to do something to get the blue and black out. I don't know what they did, but after another hour of working on me, they got it to a dark brown. It does not look good on me. It was still crazy dry though. I could barely get a brush through it.

A few days later I had to go back for a deep conditioning treatment and now have to put oil into it every night to get it soft. It's much better now, but still dark brown. It does not look good on me. I was supposed to go back yesterday, but Han Solo and I were not feeling well, so I'm still rather goth looking. Crikey.

RTT: Fly Heaven

Tuesday? Holy crap, where did the week go? Oh, yeah, they went to sleepless nights with a STILL sick baby. I'm gonna Rebel it up, but it will likely be short. I got 4.5 hours of sleep last night. How I miss my 11 hour sleeping baby. Please let him come back soon!





*Indy is freakishly good at catching flies. He always has been. And when I say good, I mean he usually catches them by their wings. Ick. He also has a very small plastic container (the opening is about 1.5" across), that he catches them with. Weird. Last week there was a fly in the bathroom and I called him to get. He came in with his plastic container and when he quickly pushed it down to catch the fly and accidentally killed it. This is a rare, rare event. He looked devastated for a few minutes and then looks at me and said:
"The fly is in a better place mom. You know in Fly Heaven every street is lined with dog poo."
Good to know.

*I worry about Richard Engel. He goes a lot of dangerous places.

*Han Solo is still sick. I called the peds AGAIN today and insisted on them seeing him. We're on day 16 of this mess. I'm tired of "waiting it out."

*Remember about a week ago when I told you I dyed my hair and it turned out red? Well, I made an appt at a salon on post (1st mistake) to get it "fixed." Come back another day for the full story and a list of things you never want to hear from your hair stylist. Oh, it's bad. I've got to do THREE more appointments to fix what she "fixed." Until then I look...interesting.

*Are there any of these????

I wish you all a lovely Tuesday.  Click the link at the top to read all the other randoms and link up your own.

Where I've been-sick, sick Han Solo, and learning German for icky things

Hello gentle readers. I'll bet you've been wondering where I've been. Sadly, I was not off on some fabulous trip with my beloved Johnny Depp. I was in the hospital with my sweet little Han Solo. He's home now and doing much better though, so fear not.
About 2 weeks ago (now) he developed a terrible cough that ended all the wonderful sleeping through the night he was doing (BOO!). It got worse and worse (seriously, he'd cough for an hour at a time) and then he started having diarrhea. Holy crap (literally). On Thursday (after the Mon the coughing stated), I took him to the peds, but all the peds were booked, so we had to see a Nurse Practitioner, who Indy had seen in the past, and of whom we were not fond. She told us it was nothing and treated my like an overwrought first time mom (despite the fact that I've managed to get Indy to the age of 9). She told us to go home and it would all go away.
Friday night, the vomiting started. It was not good. Sat morning, I decided we were going to the doc again. I had to get authorization to take him to the local Kinderklinik (pediatric hospital) and after speaking to the on call nurse for less than 10 minutes I was told to take him in immediately.
We arrived at the Kinderklinik and were taken straight back (German hospitals are freaking amazing that way-check in and straight to the back you go). The doc came in less than 5 minutes later and asked me some questions and checked him out. She said he needed to be admitted and needed an IV right away. In his head. WHAT??  I have to say, he took the IV far better than I did (I started crying before they even got the needle out of the package).  He didn't cry over the needle (didn't even flinch when it went in), but was pissed to no end that they were holding his head still.  BTW, the doctor put the IV in and drew his blood.  She then took the blood back to the lab, ran the tests herself and came back in less than 20 minutes to tell me his blood work was fine.  Impressive.  I called James Bond weeping and he and Indy hopped in the car and headed to the hospital.
We were put on the infectious ward in a multi-person room.   We were more than willing to pay extra for a private room (like we had when he was born), but they don't have them.  It seems counterproductive to put a bunch of sick kids in a room together, doesn't it?  I got a crash course in the names for disgusting bodily functions in German.  Most of the nurses spoke English, but I made a point to find out what the specific words were so I could communicate with the ones who didn't.  Some things sound far better in German than they do in English.
The first night, we had only one roommate, a 6 year old girl, who was turning 7 the next day.  Han Solo got IV fluids all night, and woke up coughing several times.  My poor little man.  He took it all in stride and smiled and charmed the nurses with his pretty blue eyes and sweet nature.
Our roommate actually got to go home on her birthday, which made me happy because her family was LOUD.  Crazy loud.  We enjoyed several hours of silence before another baby (13 months) was brought in.  She had symptoms almost identical to Han Solo's.  Her mom was Chinese and the dad German.  The dad was in Japan filming a documentary on the recovery from the earthquake and couldn't get home.  She was a first time mom and a nervous wreck.  Between my broken German and her broken English (though it was admittedly better than my German), we managed to communicate fairly well.  The docs took Han Solo's IV out and told me I had to push fluids all night.  Both kids were mercifully asleep when at midnight we got another roommate (12 months).  The mom was ridiculously loud and very, very annoying.  She made noise until nearly 2am and kept slipping out to smoke!  She left her sick baby in the room alone (besides us of course) and went out for 30 minutes to smoke.  Good grief.  Her baby was grossly overweight and I didn't wonder why since the mom kept filling her bottle with orange soda.   Granted German orange soda is not the neon orange that American orange soda is and actually has some orange juice in it, but honestly.  I never saw this kid drink anything else.  We got almost no sleep that night because the mom kept getting up and making noise and waking up the babies.  I wanted to beat her.
The next morning I was exhausted beyond reason and so was Han Solo.  He was awoken almost every hour during the night.  The docs came in to check on him and I told them we were going home.  He was no longer on IV fluids and the only medication he was getting was a nebulizer, which I happen to have at home.  All I needed was the medicine and I could do those.  The young doctor was reluctant, but I told him, Han Solo would recover better when he could sleep.  The chief doctor came in a bit later and said it was fine for us to go home as long as we continued the breathing treatments.  We had to wait for his discharge papers, but as soon as we had them in hand, we were out the door.  When we got home, he went down for a nap and slept for 5 straight hours.  
He's doing much better now, though still has Husten and occasional  Durchfall (look it up).  It's time for a breathing treatment, so I'd better go.  I just didn't want you to think I'd fallen off the edge of the earth (or been whisked away by my beloved Johnny to a private island). 

My night and morning: a timeline

You may remember that I mentioned in yesterday's post that Han Solo has rotavirus. Good grief. Indy had it when he was almost 2 and it was even more awful because he was eating solid foods and mobile. I'm extremely grateful that Han Solo is still just on liquids and cannot move around. I know it could be so much worse.   He's actually taking it quite well (as did Indy) and not fussing.   My nights have been rough lately, but not really because of Han Solo.  Here's how last night went:

8pm: Give Han Solo a bath. Indy takes a shower while Han Solo is bathed, chattering the whole time about his day. Asks if I can read to him.

8:15pm: Feed Han Solo a bottle while reading to Indy (I'm a multitasker).  James Bond cleans up bathroom.

8:30pm: James Bond puts Indy to bed. Indy yells that I need to come kiss him when Han Solo is down.

8:45pm: Han Solo goes to bed (quietly and happily) . Go tuck Indy in. Has to talk about his day for a few more minutes..

9pm: All is quiet. James Bond goes to his man cave for...whatever.  Have time to read my own book.

10:15pm: Go to bed. Han Solo sleeps in our room next to my side of the bed.  Creep in quietly praying he doesn't wake up.  He doesn't.  Give silent hurrah.  Fall asleep.

11pm: Woken up by the dog whining and crying to get in the bedroom with me. Don't let them in.  They take forever to settle and will only cause a ruckus when James Bond gets them up to go outside and they might wake Han Solo.  Go back to sleep.

12:15am: Woken up when James Bond takes the dogs out.

12:25am: Dogs storm into the house like a pack of elephants. Pray fervently they don't wake Han Solo. Fortunately, they don't. Let out a sigh of relief.

12:30am: James Bond comes to bed. Floors creak. Han Solo moves around. Hold my breath, but he doesn't wake.  Sigh in relief.  Go back to sleep.

1:30am: Han Solo wakes up and babbles quite loudly for about 15 minutes. Lay there wondering if he'll go back to sleep. Babbling turns into fussing. Get up. It's rare he's up at this hour, but he's not feeling well.

1:45am: Change a ridiculously stinky diaper. Curse rotavirus for a few minutes. Make a bottle and feed Han Solo. James Bond sleeps through this.

2am: Start to put Han Solo back to bed and notice he is smelly again! Change another stinky diaper. Curse rotavirus for a few more minutes, put Han Solo back to bed (he's instantly asleep, bless him), crawl back in bed.

3:20am: Dogs start barking for no apparent reason, scaring the beejeebers out of me. Shush them. James Bond doesn't wake. Han Solo sleeps through this (dogs barking don't seem to bother him). Go back to sleep.

4:45am: Han Solo starts shifting around. I check on him and he smells suspicious. He doesn't wake up though and consider whether or not to wake him up to change his diaper. Decide to let him sleep. A little poo in his diaper won't hurt anything but my olfactory senses. Go back to sleep.

5:45am: James Bond's alarm goes off. Smack him on the shoulder a few times to wake him up so he'll turn it off. Han Solo is never bothered by the alarm (though I don't know how as it's crazy loud), so he continues to sleep. James Bond gets out of bed, walks across the room, hits snooze button gets back in bed and instantly goes back to sleep. Lay there waiting for the alarm to go off again. Think bad thoughts about James Bond.

5:54am: Alarm goes off again. Smack James Bond some more to turn off alarm. He turns it off and gets up to get dressed for PT. Fall asleep.

6:20am: James Bond comes in to kiss me goodbye, but I'm asleep so his hovering over me scares me half to death and I let out a scream. Han Solo stays asleep. James Bond leaves. Once my heart stops thumping I fall back asleep.

7:30am: Indy creeps into room quietly, wakes me and asks if he can get up. Nod that he can.  He goes to play in his room. Wonder briefly why he walks all the way to my room to ask if he can get up. Decide I'm too tired to care.  Check Han Solo. He's still smelly, but asleep. Go back to sleep.

7:45am: James Bond comes back from PT and dogs bark. Shush them rather violently. Han Solo still sleeps. James Bond crawls back in bed and falls instantly asleep. Lay there thinking I should get up. Decide not to and go back to sleep.

8:40am: Han Solo is babbling. Wake up and realize what time it is. Smack James Bond. He's supposed to be at work at 9. Get Han Solo up, change a stinky diaper and make his bottle. Indy comes out and makes his own breakfast (sweet, sweet boy). James Bond runs around the house like a mad man trying to get himself together.

8:50am: James Bond runs out the door. Han Solo stinks again! Change his diaper, wash my hands and make a cup of tea.

9am: Jump in the shower.

9:10am: Get dressed.

9:15am: Start school.

Is it any wonder I'm tired all the freaking time???? Han Solo slept through the night (8:30pm to 8am) for about 2 weeks and it was sheer bliss, but since he's been sick he's back to waking up at night and I'm delirious.   James Bond and the dogs don't help with my sleep issues.  Pray. for. me.

RTT: I'm back!

Hello my lovely readers! I know you've been wondering where I've been. Haven't you???? Of course you have. Well, I took a wee break from blogging because I've had 2 sick kiddos and I've been scrambling around trying to get all the last minute stuff together so we could start school (we started 4th grade yesterday). But now, I'm back and on a RTT too! How fortuitous (for you).





*So, sick kiddos.  Ugh.  Every year Indy brings home something that makes everyone sick.  He's normally not a sick kid at all, but I swear those germy little buggers at camp are always making him sick.  And now Han Solo is sick.  He's got rotavirus though!  If you've ever had a kid with rotavirus, you know the sheer horror.  Dear heavens!  I've changed so many diapers in the past 2 days it's not funny.  Pray for me!

*Neither the Kangaroo nor the Emu can walk backwards.

*We decided to go computer free on Sunday.  I know!  It wasn't that bad.  When we were talking about it, Indy had a question or two.

Indy: So, no computers?
Me: Nope.
Indy: What about your Kindle? That's kind of a computer isn't it?
Me: So is your Wii.
Indy: Well really, when you think about it the Kindle really is more of a book than a computer.

That's my clever boy.

*We started 4th grade yesterday. FOURTH grade! How on earth is Indy old enough to be in the 4th grade? He was actually very excited to start. He got up early, got himself dressed and drew a picture of himself (wearing the same shirt he actually had on) with confetti and fireworks all around him. Over the picture he wrote "!st Day of 4th Grade!"

*TIP is an acronym for "To Insure Promptness."  Some servers should be told this.

*I usually get a little squirly around my birthday and do something with my hair (dye it a different color, cut it off, whatever). This year around my birthday I was pregnant and not in the mood to do anything with my hair (Han Solo was born the week after my birthday). Two days ago though, I decided it was time. I was going to dye my hair brown. Not dark brown, but a nice soft brown. Hardy, har har. My hair is now a dark auburn red, emphasis on the red. Crap. My dad has (or at least used to have) red hair and my mom has red tones in her hair. I was born with red hair (that turned brownish later) and I just can't get away from it. My hair just pulls red, even if the color doesn't have the slightest bit of red in it, unless I get it professionally done. Crap.

*Did you know that all Model-T's were black because it dried faster than the other paints?  Since Ford was interested in producing cars as quickly as possible, he chose to have them all painted black so they would come off the production line quicker.

*Two weeks ago we left Han Solo with a baby sitter (the first time ever!) and took Indy to see Harry Potter 7, part 2.  It was freaking awesome!  We saw it in the comfy German theater (in English of course).  When you buy your tickets at German theaters, you pick your seats out, so you can't just sit anywhere.  They show you the open seats, you pick the ones you want and your tickets have the seats printed on them.  It's a good system really.  We missed the first 5 minutes of the movie though because a huge group of Turkish people (I know because they were draped in the Turkish flag) were protesting...something (someone is ALWAYS protesting something here) and traffic was backed up.  Grrrr.  Still, awesome movie.

*I know the US is baking right now, but it's actually chilly here!  Currently 63 degrees.  In August!  Good grief.

*We're hoping to find out in the next 2-3 weeks where we're headed next.  Texas was taken off the table (huzzah!) and now moving up to Wiesbaden (about an hour north of where we are now) is on the table!  We're hoping to stay in Germany a while longer so we don't have to pay to ship James Bond's car (the military only ships 1 vehicle) and pay for the dogs this year.  Plus, Europe!  More travel! 
*Why is this sign even necessary?

So, that's my RTT for the day.  I hope you enjoyed my return.  Click the button up there to link your own RTT and/or read loads of other randoms.