I got a little escape from the sickness yesterday making a quick trip to Walgreens.
2 packages of Triaminic
4 packages of pads
1 bottle shampoo
1 large bottle witch hazel (clearance)
1 bottle bactine (clearance)
1 fancy lip gloss
1 fancy foundation
4 Hershey dark chocolate bars
2 dozen eggs
1 vacuum cleaner (yep)
2 bottles excedrin
1 pack throat drops
1 Thermacare heat wrap
$81.66 with tax
But I'll get a little over $66 back in rebates. :) The vacuum alone was $20 after rebate, so I came out ahead on everything else. Yea!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
When it rains
What a rough week.
Ian started coughing late last week, but the ped's office was full so he got a Monday appt. By Saturday, both kids were congested & coughing, and Ian was clearly not feeling well. Neither one was sleeping well, either. Monday morning we find out Ian has a sinus infection & get antibiotics, but the ped's office was too busy to look at Rinnah (even though she already had an appt to get a shot). Ian started to improve on the meds, but Rinnah got worse. Wednesday I call for her and they tell me they're still too busy and short staffed. This time I insisted, and got an appointment where we found out she has a raging ear infection. Poor girl, the dr stuck the otoscope in her ear and she SCREAMED at the top of her lungs for literally the next 30 minutes. So we got her some antibiotics and hoped she'd get better too.
Then today she woke up with hives. Ugh. So we call the ped's office who is still really busy and makes me feel like I'm being a total nuisance, but agree that she should probably be seen. I take her in, the dr spends less than 3 minutes in the room, tells me that this isn't a serious reaction and some kids just get rashes on antibiotics, but I should call if it happens again. He tells me to keep her on the same meds. Okay. I took her home, gave her another dose, and put her down for a nap. She woke up with hives again. I called back (had to go through the answering service, since it was 3:30pm and they had already stopped answering the phone) and after an hour and a half, got a call back from a nurse who basically told me that this is just going to happen for at least a few days and it really isn't a big deal, but if I'm "freaked out" by it they could call in a different antibiotic. But it really isn't necessary and I'm being ridiculous for considering it. Just give her benadryl.
Jeremy and I decided that hives are uncomfortable, and even if they aren't a life-threatening reaction they certainly aren't helping her sleep. Plus we didn't feel confident that if things got worse, we'd be able to get a response from our ped's office over the weekend. So we asked for a new medication for her which they grudgingly called in.
It's the only ped office in town, and the next closest would be 45 minutes away. I know my dad liked this dr, and as a person I think he's probably great and that's why my dad liked him-he's involved with his church, he's good with his family, he regularly goes on medical missions trips, etc. But this office always makes me feel like I'm being a huge inconvenience for them every time I need to bring a kid in, and like I'm completely overreacting every time I have a concern. And they have this same-day scheduling nonsense where you can't make appointments ahead of time; it's like a phone free-for-all at 8am. Sometimes it takes over 30 minutes to get through. And I am always rushed in the room and never get to ask all my questions before the dr is stepping out the door.
I hope we can find a better office once we move. And I hope our kids sleep tonight-Rinnah has been up most of the night, every night this week, and any time she slept for more than an hour Ian was up during that time. Jeremy and I are really tired. I'm just glad he helps-I would not even be walking straight if I were doing this alone.
Ian started coughing late last week, but the ped's office was full so he got a Monday appt. By Saturday, both kids were congested & coughing, and Ian was clearly not feeling well. Neither one was sleeping well, either. Monday morning we find out Ian has a sinus infection & get antibiotics, but the ped's office was too busy to look at Rinnah (even though she already had an appt to get a shot). Ian started to improve on the meds, but Rinnah got worse. Wednesday I call for her and they tell me they're still too busy and short staffed. This time I insisted, and got an appointment where we found out she has a raging ear infection. Poor girl, the dr stuck the otoscope in her ear and she SCREAMED at the top of her lungs for literally the next 30 minutes. So we got her some antibiotics and hoped she'd get better too.
Then today she woke up with hives. Ugh. So we call the ped's office who is still really busy and makes me feel like I'm being a total nuisance, but agree that she should probably be seen. I take her in, the dr spends less than 3 minutes in the room, tells me that this isn't a serious reaction and some kids just get rashes on antibiotics, but I should call if it happens again. He tells me to keep her on the same meds. Okay. I took her home, gave her another dose, and put her down for a nap. She woke up with hives again. I called back (had to go through the answering service, since it was 3:30pm and they had already stopped answering the phone) and after an hour and a half, got a call back from a nurse who basically told me that this is just going to happen for at least a few days and it really isn't a big deal, but if I'm "freaked out" by it they could call in a different antibiotic. But it really isn't necessary and I'm being ridiculous for considering it. Just give her benadryl.
Jeremy and I decided that hives are uncomfortable, and even if they aren't a life-threatening reaction they certainly aren't helping her sleep. Plus we didn't feel confident that if things got worse, we'd be able to get a response from our ped's office over the weekend. So we asked for a new medication for her which they grudgingly called in.
It's the only ped office in town, and the next closest would be 45 minutes away. I know my dad liked this dr, and as a person I think he's probably great and that's why my dad liked him-he's involved with his church, he's good with his family, he regularly goes on medical missions trips, etc. But this office always makes me feel like I'm being a huge inconvenience for them every time I need to bring a kid in, and like I'm completely overreacting every time I have a concern. And they have this same-day scheduling nonsense where you can't make appointments ahead of time; it's like a phone free-for-all at 8am. Sometimes it takes over 30 minutes to get through. And I am always rushed in the room and never get to ask all my questions before the dr is stepping out the door.
I hope we can find a better office once we move. And I hope our kids sleep tonight-Rinnah has been up most of the night, every night this week, and any time she slept for more than an hour Ian was up during that time. Jeremy and I are really tired. I'm just glad he helps-I would not even be walking straight if I were doing this alone.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Cleveland
We spent last week in Cleveland exploring the area we hope to move to in the next few months. I had been looking forward to moving before, but after visiting, I am really excited. There is so much in that area! Plenty of museums, parks, classes, stores-so many more things to do and see. Within a two hour drive we have tons of daytrip options, and within a day's drive we could get to almost anything except some of our family & friends. It's also beautiful out there. There was a foot of snow on the ground last week and Ian loved stomping around crunching the snow.
There are several options for housing and we're now thinking and praying about what we want to do. Ideally, we'd like to have a "dream house" out there-nice yard, good neighborhood, good school district-eventually for the kids to grow up in. We're not ready for that now, partly financially but mostly we want to get more familiar with the area before deciding exactly where we want to settle. So we're trying to decide what to do for the short term.
We saw one apartment that we liked. It's a 3 bedroom, so Jeremy would have an office and the kids would share a room. The pluses: no maintenance issues, no down payment, no long term commitment, and it's in a good area. Downside: small, no separate playroom for the kids, probably will be loud for Jeremy trying to work, parking is kind of far from the building, and we won't be building equity.
Another option is a 2200 square foot mobile home. The layout is perfect for us-one one side of the house is the master bedroom and beyond that, an office just the right size for Jeremy. There are tons of huge closets, and three bedrooms besides the master, so the kids wouldn't have to share and we'd still have an extra room. There is a separate living room/family room for the kid's toys. There is also a small yard-big enough for the kids to play in a splash pool or kick a small ball. Downside: kind of rural, a good 10 minutes from the highways & shopping. The lot is rented, not owned. It could be hard to resell, since the current owners have had it on the market since last July.
A third option we're looking into is a very cheap mobile home. It's in a better location, closer to the highways. It's still 2200 square feet and has an attached garage and deck. It also has a little yard. And did I mention it's cheap? Like less than our car cheap. We could probably buy a new house in 2-3 years if we lived there. Downside: we haven't seen it in person, we don't know what the layout is exactly, and we're not sure why it's that cheap.
At any rate, it's really nice to know that we have several options out there that would enable us to buy a great house for the kids to grow up in after only 5 years or so. Just have to decide what route to take.
There are several options for housing and we're now thinking and praying about what we want to do. Ideally, we'd like to have a "dream house" out there-nice yard, good neighborhood, good school district-eventually for the kids to grow up in. We're not ready for that now, partly financially but mostly we want to get more familiar with the area before deciding exactly where we want to settle. So we're trying to decide what to do for the short term.
We saw one apartment that we liked. It's a 3 bedroom, so Jeremy would have an office and the kids would share a room. The pluses: no maintenance issues, no down payment, no long term commitment, and it's in a good area. Downside: small, no separate playroom for the kids, probably will be loud for Jeremy trying to work, parking is kind of far from the building, and we won't be building equity.
Another option is a 2200 square foot mobile home. The layout is perfect for us-one one side of the house is the master bedroom and beyond that, an office just the right size for Jeremy. There are tons of huge closets, and three bedrooms besides the master, so the kids wouldn't have to share and we'd still have an extra room. There is a separate living room/family room for the kid's toys. There is also a small yard-big enough for the kids to play in a splash pool or kick a small ball. Downside: kind of rural, a good 10 minutes from the highways & shopping. The lot is rented, not owned. It could be hard to resell, since the current owners have had it on the market since last July.
A third option we're looking into is a very cheap mobile home. It's in a better location, closer to the highways. It's still 2200 square feet and has an attached garage and deck. It also has a little yard. And did I mention it's cheap? Like less than our car cheap. We could probably buy a new house in 2-3 years if we lived there. Downside: we haven't seen it in person, we don't know what the layout is exactly, and we're not sure why it's that cheap.
At any rate, it's really nice to know that we have several options out there that would enable us to buy a great house for the kids to grow up in after only 5 years or so. Just have to decide what route to take.
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