I’m Beautiful Like Me.

Well, I finally dragged my pathetic self to the doctor on the 8th. The doctor was pleasingly sympathetic. She gave me Keplex (a broad-spectrum antibiotic), Medrol (a steroid) and Tussionex (cough syrup with hydrocodone). I felt markedly better the next day and spent most of that day vacuuming, spraying every touchable surface with Lysol and washing everything in the house, including our bed linens. Today is the last day of my antibiotics, and while I do feel so much better, my right ear and my throat hurts today. I am supposed to meet with the doctor again this Thursday to check out that the funk has, indeed, left. Keep your fingers crossed!

We’ve spent quite a bit of time focusing on getting T caught up in her classes. I was under the impression that she was doing fine. Not so much! She was so far behind in one of her classes that we pulled her out of it. She’s still quite a bit behind, but she should be back on track by this Wednesday.

Joy is almost finished with her school year. I have gotten several of her test scores back and she is either proficient or distinguished in all subjects. I’m quite pleased. She is a naturally good speller and while she struggles with math, she is capable of doing well in that area, too. If only I could get her to read more at home without the fight! Reading really is such a pleasure, it sucks that it’s an argument to get her to get started. Once she’s into a book, though, she usually finds herself really enjoying it. It is also a conflict to get her to do Plato - the free online tutoring the school provided. She doesn’t really need it, but it certainly isn’t going to hurt.

The boy has 3 molars now! He seems to be jumping dozens of hurdles on the daily. He danced yesterday! And he is saying more words. He still doesn’t sign much, but he seems to understand the words we are signing to him. And he has a very healthy appetite. I can’t get over it. I swear the time has just flown by. Seems like only yesterday I had a sleepy newborn. Now I have a boisterous and busy toddler. He is so full of personality. And he absolutely adores his sister to pieces.

We haven’t been doing much since we have been all burdened by this illness. However, my friend P insisted that we accompany her to the park last week. We went along and had a good time, but we did not stay for nearly as long as we normally do. We were all winded rather quickly!

And yesterday we joined P, her girls and our old friend S and her daughter to Forest Fest. It’s a bluegrass festival in Jefferson County Memorial Forest, the nation’s largest municipal forest. Legendary Bluegrass icon Dr. Ralph Stanley appeared and performed. We didn’t stay to see him, which both saddened me and was a relief. We were there for several hours and I was exhausted from chasing Buddha around. We did, however, see Bluegrass 101 and Kentucky Sassafras play.

The particular spot we chose was to the far left of the stage but near the road. About an hour before we left, Dr. Stanley’s tour bus pulled in just behind our spot and his entourage began congregating and crowding in behind us. They ended up setting up a table for CD and t-shirt sales right behind us.

T gets Joy with sunblock.

P is forever doing chores while we are supposed to be having fun. When we were partying teenagers, everyone would be goofing off and P would be in the kitchen doing dishes. Here she is paying bills. That’s S and her daughter in the background. Also, you can see some of Buddha and P’s youngest daughter C.

P’s oldest daughter, L.

S and her daughter, P’s youngest C and the boy.

S’s daughter and Buddha. He was really into this wagon. I’ma hafta get him one!

Joy standing in line for one of the activities.

Joy poses with a nifty stone chair and table.

T, the girl and the boy stand in line for organic coffee.

The boy found a pinecone.

The girl making a visor.

T entertains Buddha for a while. He doesn’t look very entertained.

Dr. Stanley’s tour bus.

Buddha and I take a break to nurse. Pay no attention to flabby, stretch-marked belly.

The boy and his fascination with the wagon. The people just beyond him are Dr. Stanley’s posse.

Joy and her best friend, P’s oldest L.

T gave the boy a tube of chapstick, which kept him busy for several minutes.

You can see the stage to the right.

No idea WTH T is doing. Weirdo.

A good shot of the stage and our view of it.

It’s Kentucky Sassafras up there playing. Great music! There was a pretty good crowd, too. We just stayed away from it as best we could.

I was pleased by the diversity of the crowd. There were hippies, old folks, rednecks, teenagers, a lot of kids. Turned out that I knew the people just in front of us, too! Small world.

Last Thursday was Husband’s 27th birthday. Unfortunately, he had to work. On the Monday before, we had a WIC appointment and afterwards, we talked about his gift. I wanted to get him a new stereo for his car - the kind with USB port and/or an SD card reader, so that he could play mp3s. None of us listens to the radio anymore and CDs are so cumbersome. Besides, it’s what he’s wanted since I met him. However, I have no idea how to pick high-tech gadgets for the pickiest of picky high-tech gadget dorks! So, I told him my idea but said that if there was something else or better that he wanted, that was alright with me too. He gave me a big squeeze and said that I was the best wife ever. Needless to say, this made me feel great since I had internal conflicts for weeks now about how to get him a gift he could love, use and appreciate! He decided he really wanted to get a PDA and that he would save up for it. I also set him an appointment to take the class so he can get his CCDW again. That made him really happy, too. On his actual birthday, I squeezed him and wished him a great day. I wish I could’ve done more, though.

I finished another blanket, which I gave to an online buddy of mine. It’s just like the blanket I made for my niece, only the border is different (scalloped edges instead of the braid). I mailed that to her on Wednesday. I’ve been meaning to get started on another project for another internet buddy, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I need to type out the instructions for it since all the abbreviations confuse the hell outta me. I have enough yarn to make two of these blankets. I intend to keep one of them for the boy. It’s a granny square project - my first one! - and I’m ready to learn how to do that now. I have no idea what I’ll do after that, but I have gobs of yarn, so it’ll be something.

I’ve been busy crocheting blankets! I’ve made three blankets since the 5th of March! The first one is featured in my last posting.

I made a pastel green basket-weave blanket with light blue shell stitch border lovey-sized blanket for the boy:

It was a total pain in the ass. Firstly, the yarn is very fine and the hook I used was pretty small compared to hook I used to make the first blanket. I developed several new blisters. It also required counting. Erg. I unraveled the first 6 rows at least 5 times before I found a good groove. When I completed the body of the blanket, I tried several different stitches for borders and unraveled each of them (about 4 times) after deciding I hated them all. I finally got ahold of my friend who inspired me to take up crocheting in the first place and she suggested the shell stitch. Of course, I loved it (she’s so farkin’ brilliant!!!) and did one row on either side of the blanket.

I finished Buddha’s blanket on April 8 and the same evening, started a blanket for my niece’s first birthday. I knew it would be late, but I had no idea how quickly I could work under pressure! I finished the entire blanket in 3 days and finished it *on* her birthday. I’m really very proud of it. With aforementioned friend’s help reading the pattern for the border, I whipped it right out. The colors don’t appear nearly as beautiful in the pictures as they do in person. It’s Neopolitan: brown, pink and off-white. The body is double crocheted, the border is mostly single-crocheted all the way around (man, that was hard!) and there is a fat braid that goes through the top and bottom. Best of all, there is a seat belt hole, which I thought would be really hard, but friend talked me through that one and it turned out to be pretty damn easy!

Here is the finished blanket!

Karma holding it to show size:

Other stuff and updates:

Buddha is finally over his sore ankle. He’s also back to full-on appetite. He’s a really fun baby most days, but everyday around 6pm-ish, he gets really cranky for about 30 minutes. Sometimes it abates, but sometimes it lasts for the rest of the evening.

Joy had Spring Break last week. She thinks that she should do something special every day when on breaks from school. I don’t usually mind, but when there is an evening when someone can’t come over and no one’s invited her over, she complains incessantly of boredom. As one might imagine, I hate that. She spent a few nights at Oma’s, a night at her friend L’s house, a night at A’s and each of them both spent a night here. We went to the park on a few pretty days, too. Unfortunately, the temps have dropped again. She and I spent about two hours cleaning and rearranging her room on Thursday. We got rid of two-thirds of her clothes, too. Wouldn’t you know it that it’s already a huge mess again?!

On Friday, I picked T up from Oma’s. Oma’s pretty pissed at me over it, but I fail to understand why. She tells T the entire time that “it’s really not that much work,” but if that were the case, then why is she so upset with me for getting her a couple of days early? I’ve done the work - it’s fuckin’ hard as hell. I know mom: she wants to justify to herself paying T in peanuts while working her ass off. Whatever. She’ll get over it eventually. I love my mom, but sometimes she is just way over the top.

Anyway, T is happy to be back, as are we. She’s a huge help around here with chores and the kids. And she likes the fact that she can go online pretty much as she pleases for a couple of hours per day. She’s about halfway through her book now, too.

The glasses are still weird. I forget to put them on sometimes. I do not like wearing them while I eat. I’ve been getting headaches, too. I think it might be from taking them off and putting them on a lot. The baby likes swatting them off of my face, which annoys the snot out of me. It’s just going to take some adjusting. But at least I look a little more like myself with them on and curly hair!