Well, Isn't THAT Interesting...

 This is my eyes last Saturday. They had not improved by Monday so I went back into the doctor - my own this time - to see whether they could do anything  about it. They checked all the usual suspects - history, vitals, etc. - and decided that it was fairly likely I had bacterial pinkeye, rather than just viral. Since I had a low-grade fever, this was further evidence for a bacterial infection. Here, use these in your eyes four times a day; you won't be well by Wednesday but things should be looking and feeling a lot better. And don't forget the followup on Friday morning.

They weren't. Better, that is.

They still weren't on Thursday morning when I put the drops in at eight. And they were still that bright flaming red, not just pink, and not only red where the burst vessel is, either. Maybe even worse than Saturday or Monday, but certainly not better. At all.

At noon I used the drops, and it wasn't until about three hours later that I realized I had only used the artificial tears rather than the antibiotic drops. But now my eyes look like this. Barely pink in both, and even the red from the burst vessel is clearing up. Huh. Go the Hubs to verify ("yep, they look a lot better") and look the Rx drops up on the Internet. Okay, so side effects include redness, itching, burning (check, check check). Allergic response to said antibiotic can include... redness, itching, burning, and swollen eyelids.

Well.

Do I discontinue use of the antibiotic drops until tomorrow's followup appointment, and just use the artificial tears? I think yes, but I'm waiting on a call back from my doctor.

Because I'd rather not look like this, no matter how much Lizzy wants me to. For Halloween, you understand.

ETA: Doc just called back. I should hold off on the antibx drops until she can re-evaluate tomorrow. Good.

You Have GOT to be Kidding Me

So, as we all know, I have had the Eye of Doom. And Abby has had pinkeye and a cold sore on one eyelid and we've both had a cold.

So, since I do have a cold, I took a little nap this afternoon.

When I woke up my right eye (opposite the Doom) was glued shut.

I said things Lizzy should not hear.

She said, "Mommy, you're sposeta say 'for cwying out loud,' you know."

Shut up.

So off I go to the doc, because we really don't want the rest of the family to get this, and I can't prescribe.

The doctor (after he finished laughing at the saga of the Eyes at Chez Gamers Babes) explained it thusly. "You do not have a fever. You do not have any signs of bacterial infection. It's a virus. No Rx needed."

"But they gave my 10yo antibiotic eyedrops, and I assume I got this from her..."

"Ah, but you said she had just recovered from a cold sore on her eyelid. Antibiotic drops are in her case a safety measure, erring on the side of caution, to make sure she doesn't even run the risk of getting anything else."

"Oh. So how do I treat this?"

"Artificial tears now, and a new tube of mascara in a week."

All right then.

"Your eyes will likely be glued shut in the morning, and feel like you spent the night on a windy beach with them held open. For a couple days. Just, you know, the warm washcloth, the hand-washing..."

Yeah, whatever.

Oh, and cookie recipients in the greater Seattle area? Not this weekend for delivery. The ones in our neighborhood, perhaps, Abby can find a friend to help. But nowhere I have to drive her. Sorry.

But you don't want me near you.

The Eyes Have It

So I have the Eye of Doom, and so I have a job interview today.

Naturally.

And I got it!

The pay is on the low end of acceptable (but far better than collections), and the commute is not terrific (opposite ends of town). But it's congenial work (publishing online), for a congenial company (a vendor for Microsoft, in the XBox Live group). And it looks like it's something I can do well (again, unlike collections).

So YAY!

I am so excited that I can hardly stand it.

I start March 4th. When, of course, my mom is out of town. Isn't that always the way? So - being the over-organized person that I am, I have already made arrangements for Lizzy to stay late at preschool the first two days.

Because that's who I am.

Good thing I scheduled all of Abby's site sales on weekends. (and that reminds me, local cookie-buyers, we'll be delivering soon; I have a trunkful of cookies...)

Now, if you will excuse me, I'll be doing my homework and laundry and general tidying up, because I have quite a lot to do to keep my household running smoothly while I am AT WORK.

She Can't Win for Losing

First it was a cold sore, then that spread to her eyelid. Then she had a cold, and now...

Now Abby has pinkeye. In both eyes. ("Infected eye snot, Mom? Ewwwwwwww!")

This is not Abby's year.

Her dad suggested that her warranty was only good for ten years. I wonder if it's the extra extracurricular activities. I mean, we have always planned it so she's not over-scheduled; we have Girl Scouts once a month, and gymnastics (previously swimming) once a week. You hear horror stories of kids who do too many things, and burn out before they hit puberty. I didn't want Abby to be that kid, and her dad agreed, and so that worked out well.

But now she's in the school play, and it's cookie season, and every other kid in her school has something, and so... two drops, per eye, four times a day. And lots of hand sanitizer.

And a few on-sale-after-the-Valentine-Holiday M&Ms. To help the medicine go down.

Oh, and that too... a DVD of Mary Poppins I ordered (Lizzy has never seen it) came in today.

A nice, quiet evening, of homework and lasagna and all three of the girls lined up to watch "that lady who sings the Do Re Mi song too."

Celebrations

It's been quite the week for them, and that looks to continue through Sunday. At least.

Tuesday we attended a potlatch at Abby's school. A couple dozen kids, in full (if not entirely authentic) masks, telling stories and showing art and serving (fairly authentic) food (although I suspect that the Coastal Natives dried their own fruit and fish, rather than buying it at the local QFC). Abby was in charge of "art and symbols" and wrote the following piece for her display area, in addition to the mask and the drawing she made:

Native American art is unique symbols put together to make a big beautiful drawing. Native Americans who lived in Washington next to the Pacific Ocean made these wonderful drawings, paintings, sculptures and other amazing Native things. Two of the most common symbols are the ovoid and split U. These are used to fill in blank spaces. Native American art can be put on longhouses and totem poles. They traded art sort of like money to get other things they required. Sometimes they would carve these drawings on canoes. They mostly do animal drawings, sometimes they put animals on these boxes called “bentwood boxes.” These are some of the beautiful drawing the Native Americans did. 

<pictures not included because the permission obtained was for her project, not this blog>    

 These are some of the pictures the Native Americans do. I hope you enjoyed them. My mom got permission from the artist and the art gallery to show you this art.

Wednesday was Girl Scouts, complete with dinner at the sushi place and a haircut for Abby.

Then today it was Valentine's Day. As it's also my sister's birthday, and I was not exactly a popular kid growing up, to me it's more about her birthday than Valentine's Day. Until I had kids. To them, this is the best thing since Christmas, probably because of the sugar. And after a Valentine breakfast at Abby's school, and a Valentine lunch at Lizzy's, I'm about done in.

Then Lizzy and I had Girl's Afternoon Out, got our nails done (her first time) and went to the bookstore, where we got some little books for the girls and the Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook for +Laston Kirkland. On to home for chicken and leftover (from lunch) rolls and salad, and pink-for-Valentine's ice cream for dessert.

My mom's birthday is this weekend too, and as a surprise, her younger sister flew in from Florida for the weekend. So Saturday the aunties and all the adult women in our family are having a Girls' Night Out. Sunday is the actual birthday dinner for Mom and Sis, at Mom's house.

Add in school and the usual job-hunting and, well... Whew! So it's um... not just the kids then, who are over-sugared and overtired...

Irony

It's been over a week since my last post.

I find it a trifle ironic that I suddenly have no time to blog, just as I start the two classes most likely to be of use in blogging - Mass Communications and Image Editing.

Maybe it's not irony so much as coincidence (I get that mixed up), because last week was a doozy.

Normally, I have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on my own, while everyone else is at school or work, to get a head start on my schoolwork, do my job hunting, etc. Then I can relax a bit by the time the Hubs is at home on Thursday and Miz Liz is only gone in the mornings.

But not last week.

Last week the Hubs broke a tooth, Abby stayed home with a cold, Leanna stayed home with a cold while her mom worked (although she was no distraction; when she's sick she just sleeps).  Everyone was home, in my space even when I wore earphones, and all I wanted was a little peace and quiet to do my Image Editing homework (it's not difficult, but it requires concentration and is time consuming). We also had our taxes done - thanks for watching Lizzy, mom!) once the big girls were back in school.

How do people who stay home by choice manage it?

And I'm still getting over walking pneumonia.

Abby's 4th grade class is hosting a potlatch tomorrow and she needed help procuring the supplies and assembling her projects (she is the representative for Art and Symbols). I sent an email to a local gallery asking if I could use the images on their web site for her class project. I spell-checked her typed paragraph for the project myself (because poor Microsoft Word's dictionary has no idea what to give as suggestions for words like droings or sklpshrs. The child hates vowels).

I helped Lizzy assemble a u-u-Unicorn and explained that no, dwarves are not the ones who protect your lawn; those are gnomes. This conversation came about because her pre-k class is finishing up a unit on the Solar System, and somewhere in there she heard that Pluto is a dwarf planet ("but it didn't used to be, Mom, it was a regalar planet for a long time."). This led to a new-found love of an old favorite of mine (below), and now she can't get to sleep without the disc for the whole bloody series playing in the background.

So yeah, all that? The usual Mommy stuff writ large and most of us sick and taxes and even the cat has the cold now and... it was a busy week.

I still think it's not technically irony though.

Sorry, Honey

Abby (10) wants desperately to be Gryffindor-brave. But instead she is Hufflepuff-kind.

This is true in general; the child is not a leader, she's usually the peacemaker among her friends, and when she thinks we're not looking, she's pretty unfailingly kind to her annoying little sister (who is probably a Ravenclaw like her mother, but that's another post).

This was brought home to me today, when Abby and I were on our way to the craft store to get supplies for her school project. They're hosting a potlatch as part of their social studies unit, and she is in charge of "art and symbols". We discussed her class, and who was doing what part of the potlatch, and she mentioned that one of her classmates is "not really my kind of person, but is okay, I guess." All well and good, until she says that her best friends aren't in her class anymore, and she misses them (one moved back to India with her family and the other is in a different class). And her almost-best friend ("Anna") in her class is jealous of her friendship with their mutual best friend ("Sally").

Got that? Abby and Anna are in the same class, and they both miss Sally being in their class as she was last year.

Abby and Anna are friends, but Anna is jealous that Abby and Sally are friends too.

To complicate matters, Sally is in a class where she only has morning recess with Abby and Anna three days a week. They have afternoon recess together every day.

So I asked Abby how she was dealing with this and she said, matter-of-factly, "Oh, I made a schedule for us."

A schedule.

"Yeah, so it's fair. On Monday and Tuesday, Sally does not have our recess, so Anna and I practice our play parts." (they're both Oompa Loompas in their school's production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). On Wednesday Anna and Sally play together at morning recess, and on Thursday Sally and I do. On Friday and afternoon recess we all play together."

Again, all very matter-of-fact.

Problem-solving, striving not to hurt others' feelings, methodical, organized, kind, and loyal.

Sounds like Hufflepuff to me.