A Rainy Monday

Since early this morning we have had a nice, steady rain falling.  It has been the kind of dark, gloomy day when snuggling in bed with a good book or a good movie is di rigeur.  This is good for our drought-stricken area.

We did make one trip out to the library.  I got the new novel from Cheryl Mendelson entitled Anything For June.  It sounds really good, and I can't wait to start it.  I just recently finished a biography of Charles Schultz by David Michaelis called Schultz and Peanuts, and I am currently reading Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen.

I had a few hours to myself yesterday evening.  Thomas had to work yesterday, and because they were fighting a deadline he didn't get home until almost 10:00 p.m.  VERY unusual for him on a Sunday, but once in a while that happens.  Andrew always joins a group of friends on Sunday evenings at a local sports center where they play volleyball or dodgeball or just hang out.  There are kids there that we know from teenage to young 20s, and a lot of the parents are there too.  Occasionally I go and take Eler Beth for a while.  Well, yesterday Andrew invited Eler Beth to come along, and she was on cloud nine.  Andrew's band usually does some practicing while they're there, and their bass player is only 14 and a favorite of Eler Beth's.  But more importantly than that -- one of Andrew's friends has a little brother who is Eler Beth's age, and she's had her eye on him for quite some time.  The poor boy doesn't know what's in store for him in the coming years!  He's cute as he can be but so far is immune to the girls chasing him.  He and Eler Beth kid around and tease each other.

So anyway, she got to hang out with the big guys (and their little brothers!).  She even got to go out to eat with them.  The lead singer/guitarist, Andrew's friend J, even asked for her opinion on a new song he performed.  They teased her about having rabies from her dog bite, and she got to tease them back as only a little sister can do.

And I got to stay home and catch up on reading and commenting in journals.  I didn't even have to cook.  The kids ate out, and I fixed soup and a sandwich for me and for Thomas when he got home.   Today, though, I believe chili is in order.  I hope everyone is having a good Monday.

 Graphics by Donna at This and That and Hockey

Itty Bitty Chickens, Crochet Lessons, and Galivanting Grandmas

I have some catching up to do, don't I?

Let's see.  Eler Beth's dog bite is healing very well.  I don't even think it will leave much of a scar.  Yesterday Eler Beth and her friend B went to a crochet class at the public library.  My niece M was there too (M is the one with diabetes).  There were only two other girls in the class.  They were home schoolers like Eler Beth, and M is on homebound, so B was the only public school student there.  They had a great time.  The lady who was doing the class (one of the librarians) had so much fun with them that she asked them if they'd like to all meet together again to continue the lessons -- not as a formal class with registration like this one, but just meet together informally.  She kept our phone numbers and gave the girls hers.

I had taught Eler Beth some basics of crocheting last year and she had played around with it a little, but I'm very much a beginner myself, so I thought it would be good for her to learn from someone who was actually good at it.  This lady had a lot of examples of her work there on display, and she is good.  So tonight I took Eler Beth and B to The Hobby Lobby, and we stocked up on yarn and hooks and other goodies.  Now I'm in the mood to do some crocheting myself.  (An afghan is about the extent of my ambitions, though.)

Last night was very stormy in our area.  We had tornado watches and warnings here and surrounding us from late in the afternoon to the wee hours of this morning.  I know the wind and rain were pretty bad in our neighborhood and there were some very ugly clouds out there, but we didn't have much damage.  The tornados stayed to the South and East of us.

Wednesday was Eler Beth's day to plan and cook dinner, so that morning I asked her what she'd like to try.  She said, "How about those itty bitty chickens!  Remember those itty bitty chickens we had one time, and we each had our own?  I can't remember what they're called."

So we had itty bitty chickens (also known as Cornish hens), stuffing, French cut green beans, and salad.  For dessert we had homemade peach pound cake that I'd made the day before.

My Mom is in Florida for a month or so.  She went down with my eldest sister, Dee, last week.  They visited Dee's daughter and her family in Ocala, and Dee's youngest son, Jacob (the one who was an assistant cameraman on Survivor), and his girlfriend.  Her middle son and his family, who live in Kentucky, couldn't go, but their oldest son went along.  Then they spent a few days with my second oldest sister, Maxine, in St. Augustine.  Then Dee and her grandson went back home to KY, but Mom is staying with Maxine for a few weeks. 

Maxine is a teacher and won't have a break from school until November, so Mom is on her own during the day.  Maxine's son and his family, or her daughter and her family, come by to see her, though, and have made plans to get her out of the house some days.   Mom said she's going to work on a quilt while she's down there, so Maxine took her out Wednesday night to get fabric, batting, and backing.  And Maxine took her to Curves on Monday, so Mom won't be missing her weekly exercise routine.

Well, there.  That's caught everyone up a bit.  I'm still catching up on entries, but I think I've at least visited everyone and left a comment in the past few days.  I'll try to write some more over the weekend.  I'm planning on doing some major cleaning tomorrow, so I'll probably be taking breaks on the computer to either read journals or write in my own.  I hope everyone has a good weekend. 

Briefly

I really must get caught up on my journal reading.  And I have a lot of things I want to write about, too  e.g. this past weekend was our annual camping trip to Sycamore Springs Park;  our weather is finally cool and Fall-like (my system was shocked when I stepped outside this morning); oh, and various other things that I just haven't taken the time to write about.  It probably won't be this evening, but soon, I hope.  Til then, I hope everyone had a nice hump day.

Dog Bite

We have had a bit of excitement this evening.

Eler Beth was riding her bike around the neighborhood, and stopped in front of a house two streets over to speak to a friend who was riding by.  A dog came from the back yard of the house she was in front of and stood watching her for a minute.  She looked at the dog and was thinking what a pretty dog it was when it suddenly rushed out and bit her on the back of her calf.  It then ran back into its back yard.  She called for help, and the lady and man of the house came out and got her.  They took her inside and the lady checked out the bite. 

Meanwhile, back at the farm ....

The phone rings.  I don't recognize the name on the caller ID.  I answer, and hear my daughter's voice.  "Um, Mom, I just got bit by a dog, and I need you to come get me.  I'm at *street address*."  She sounded so calm!!

I threw on shoes, grabbed my purse and keys and flew.  She walked out smiling, along with the man who was holding his baby son.  She lifted her pants leg and showed me a bite on her leg that was much better than it could have been, but still bad enough.  The man said that his dog (a Doberman) is up-to-date on her shots, and that they keep it penned in the (fenced-in) back yard, and he didn't know how she got out.  He and the lady were so very nice and just devastated that it happened.  He told me he was putting the dog down.  I told him I hated to hear that, but he said that the dog is fine with family, but if anyone else is over it is aggressive.  It had gotten out before and he'd been afraid that if she got out again she'd bite someone.  Now that she had, he was going to have to put her down.

Well, we got in the car (getting her bike in my back seat, as well, by the way), and on the drive to the house that's when my baby broke down and cried.  She said, "It was so scary!  And it hurt so much!"

I took her straight to the bathroom and scrubbed the wound and looked at it closely.  It is right where the curve of the calf muscle begins.  There is a small area, smaller than a dime, where the skin was torn off, and I can see the flesh, but it doesn't actually look like a puncture there anywhere.  Above it is a scrape that didn't even bleed.  After scrubbing it and rinsing it I watched it for a minute, and it continued to bleed a bit, but just more of a seeping out of blood. 

I called the 24/7 nurse line that our insurance provides.  I answered all of the nurse's questions and gave her a description of the wound.  She said if I know for sure or can find out within six hours that the dog is up-to-date on its shots, then she told me to call Eler Beth's pediatrician in the morning, and she told me how to care for it in the meantime.  However, if I don't know for sure about the shots, then within six hours I would need to get her to an urgent care center, just to be on the safe side.

While I was talking to her Thomas came in from work, so he drove back over there to talk to the dog owners, and they were able to show us proof that the dog had had its shots.  While he was gone I  had my little breakdown!

I called our sheriff's office to see if it was a state law that any animal bite had to be reported.  She asked me what happened, and I told her, and she said that it was really up to me.   If the dog owners were being cooperative and they usually keep the dog confined, then it was entirely up to me.  Well, I know they keep the dog confined.  Eler Beth knows every dog in the neighborhood, and she said that this one is always in its back yard.  That's why she was watching it so closely when it came into the front yard.  And both the man and the woman were practically in tears.  If for some reason I did want to file a report I can do it tomorrow.   Anyone's dog can get out now and then, no matter how careful you are.  Anything can happen, and you just have to take as many precautions as you can.

Well, anyway, Eler Beth is doing fine (and so am I).  We'll keep neosporon on the wound, and put some ice on it for a while for swelling.  There is a particular infection that the CDC warns about when it comes to dog or cat bites which usually presents itself within hours, the nurse told me, and she said the doctor may prescribe an antibiotic just to be on the safe side even if there is no sign of infection.  I guess we'll see.

More Monday Ramblings

It's a good thing we didn't really have a super studious day planned -- the phone kept interrupting me all afternoon! 

A good (elderly) friend of ours called to see if Thomas could put her mailbox back up on its post -- some nice, considerate person knocked it off.  Then the wife of one of Thomas' nephews called regarding the camping trip we're going on this weekend and then had some other things to talk about.  Their oldest daughter, 13, is a diabetic, and they've been having problems with the nurse and other staff at her middle school.  I'm not sure of exactly all the details, but whenever she checks her sugar if it's high they don't take proper care of her, not making sure she gets whatever it is she needs at the time, or calling her parents or whatever they're supposed to do.  One day it was extremely high and the nurse left her in her office for almost an hour before doing whatever it was she was supposed to do.  The principal has an attitude whenever the parents talk to him about it.  So now her pediatrician has signed orders that she be homebound.  A homebound teacher will spend five hours a week with her.  They had considered home schooling, but didn't feel they could meet her needs educationally, so this is a good solution.

Anyway, this afternoon Eler Beth watched an educational video, and then we did word puzzles all afternoon, played outside with the dogs, and fixed dinner together.  We just had leftovers mostly.  Last night I fixed barbecue elk ribs, and we had homemade pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing, made from a fresh cushaw pumpkin.  I can only eat a bite or two now and then because of the eggs in it, but it was very yummy, if I do say so myself!  So dinner was easy.

Thomas worked a little late, then after dinner he and Eler Beth fixed Jewel's mailbox for her, and I ran some books to the library.  Andrew came in from school and went straight to bed.  He didn't want dinner.  He doesn't have a fever and no other symptoms, he's just tired.  He did have a pretty busy weekend, so I think he's just worn out.

I think I'll make an early night of it myself.  Sorry to bore everyone with my super slow, super boring day, but at least you get to hear from me!    Take care!

 

Monday Rambling

Wow!  I got a lot of votes on the poll in my previous entry! 

Good afternoon all!  Here in Southern Indiana it is a sunny and beautiful first day of October.  Our morning actually started out gloomy and overcast, but now the sun is out.  We had a gorgeous weekend, and I took advantage of it and did some yardwork.

Eler Beth and I started school a little late this morning, so we had our lunch break late.  She's watching old Tom & Jerry episodes on Cartoon Network and I decided to check in here.  I don't usually let her watch TV while she's having lunch on a school day, but we're kind of playing the whole day by ear today.  Who knows what kind of rules we may break!!  (I kind of like seeing those old cartoons, myself.)

About six weeks ago Eler Beth got a new cockatiel to join Lucy and Louie.  He was only four months old (still a baby, really), is gray and yellow, and his name is Schroeder.  When we brought him home she couldn't decide on a name.  When we introduced him to Lucy and Louie I was amazed at their reactions.  Louie totally ignored him, but Lucy was fascinated with him!  Lucy is the dominate one, and I was a little nervous about how she would accept a new bird in the house.  She loves him!  She would get right up in his face and start singing a love song to him.  If you got him out, she'd throw a fit to go with him.  Wherever he was, that's where she wanted to be.  So I thought of Lucy of the Peanuts cartoons, and how she's in love with Schroeder (whose thoughts are only for Beethoven), and suggested we go with Schroeder until we came up with something better.  Well Eler Beth liked it, and it seems to fit him.  He's a sweety, too.

He's just over five months old right now, and he has been wolf whistling for the past couple of weeks.  I've heard Lucy do a wolf whistle once in a while, but he does it all the time.  It has been rather flattering and good for my self-esteem, because for a solid 20 minutes this morning he was doing a wolf whistle!  Of course, he was looking out the window while he was whistling, but I could pretend he waswhistling at me. 

Well, I will probably be back to visit journals soon.  I think I'm going to let Eler Beth watch a National Geographic video today that fits in with our Science lesson, and let that be it for the day.  It's just one of those day, you know?  Actually, she had a low-grade fever last night, and though she doesn't have one today, I think she's still feeling a little sluggish.  I'm a bit sluggish myself.  So I'll sign off for now and wish everyone a happy Monday and a great week ahead!

First Of The Month!

Once again it's time for a friendly reminder to schedule your mammogram if you've never done so before, or to make yourself a reminder if your annual mammogram is coming up soon.  And don't forget those other yearly exams, as well!

 

Tags: Breast Cancer Awareness, Mammograms