Another week gone

Well, it's been another week, and an eventful one. Last Sunday, 9/12, we spent time with Jen, Mike & James; I work with Jen, her hubby is Mike, and their 18-month-old is James. On Wednesday he comes down with herpangina, nasty virus that kids get with painful sores in their mouth and a high fever. Gestation period is 7-10 days. With Mia's party on the 26th, that means she could get it right before and put the kaibosh on the whole thing. Poor James, and poor me. I also got to stress about the fact that Craig was flying to downtown Fallujah via helicopter and we'd be out of touch for a few days.

Then Monday night, Mia's weirdo fever returns.. 102.5. I gave her Motrin & put her to bed, it was 7:00. I kept her home on Tuesday, but she was fine then, the fever had broken. So thank goodness, the rest of the week was ok.. until I got a fever on Thursday night, and stayed home Friday. Thankfully, I popped Motrin, brought her to school, and came home and slept it off. By yesterday I was fine again. We went to a horse show on the Miramar base ("we"=Stuart & I) after going to breakfast with Mia, who was a total angel! Man, I am so lucky to have such a great kid; when i complain, it just means she's having a bad week. :) Anyway, we had a great day, Mia napped well, and then we headed up to San Onofre to visit my friend Cacie and her two kids (Aidan-2 and Anna-almost 6). She had a teenage babysitter stay with all 3 kids and we went to dinner together with a couple of her friends. It was so much fun, we were on the pier in San Clemente, enjoyed the sunset & a few drinks. Of course, Mia was still AWAKE at 9PM when we got back!! They had her in front of movies all night, which really wasn't great for me, but it's over so what am I going to do.

This morning we walked to Starbucks and had our muffin & chocolate milk for Mia, cappucino for me. Then when we came back I called Jen to see how James was feeling; he went to the pediatrician and he said it WAS hand foot & mouth disease, not herpangina, and the gestation period was shortened to 7 days max! So hopefully, if Mia makes it through today with no symptoms we are in the clear! FABULOUS.

Then the phone rings; Cacie. Anna has been vomiting violently since midnight, and she has 102. AAAAAAAAARGH!!! Can I EVER take my kid out without having to worry about this crap??!?? I guess not. I fed her a vitamin and hoped for the best. I can't live in fear of this stuff, but I probably will this week only because her birthday party is coming up!

Craig is back safely in his cement home, I'm happy to say. He's doing as well as can be expected. He called this morning and heard Mia yapping away. We're just going to stick close to home this morning, she was kind of short on sleep last night, so I will give her lunch and her nap will be a great thing. Then we may go to the tide pools at Point Loma, but it's kind of... dare i say... CHILLY outside today! We'll see if the sun comes out more. They say it may rain. What's that??

This fun-filled week

So I was going to say I'm not sure where to begin, but I'm thinking I'm not sure where it ends...

This week was insane. First, termites; Paul the Termite Guy came on Tuesday at noon. He said they're in my exposed wood beam ceilings, and asked if I had seen "termite droppings". Ok, I give up... what the heck would that look like? Well apparently they look like sawdust or big sand granules...oh yeah. That stuff I've been cleaning off the top of my DVD case since we moved in on March 1st is TERMITE TURDS???? Yup. They've been here all along, came out due to the heat, and go straight for the light at the window. He drilled some holes in the beams where they were living, and injected a solution he said was much like Advantage (for fleas). He seemed confident that we got the suckers, and was a nice kid. A little off... as anyone who likes bugs that much would be, but I was loving him at this moment because he did not use the word "fumigate". He said it'd be three days before they were definitely dead, and by 1 1/2 days later, I dared to turn on the A/C. It's in the 90's here now, and HUMID.. hi, what is that crap? And the A/C was blowing all the bugs all over the place. When I stopped seeing as many, I turned it back on and have been in heaven ever since. Until today. They're back again, thankfully not as plentiful, but THIS time, that kid is poking holes in every beam in the living room when he comes... because I have no clue where they're coming from. What a pain.

So the golf tournamnet was a major source of stress.. suffice it to say the worst crisis was the sign crisis. A company we had worked with before was doing the sponsorship signs. For those not in the golf-tourney know.. at each tee box there are signs which indicate the vendor or (in our case) credit union who sponsored the hole. Whomever choked up the big bucks got recognition. So we get these wood plaques with color signs posted on them for each hole (totaling 18). I emailed the sign-guy (Steve) a list of companies who were sponsoring holes 3 weeks before the tourney, I was short a few, but the next week got him all the names. We needed 18 signs, and a banner for the dinner afterward, which was to be in a tent. He had most of the info 3 weeks prior, and the rest 2 weeks prior. I told him they were due at the course at noon on Thursday, 9/9. He assured me that this was NO problem...

Thursday, 9/9, the phone rings at 10AM. "Hi, it's Steve."
"How is everything?" I asked... thinking this was a courtesy call back since I left him a message on Wednesday to make sure all was well.
"Well... my briefcase was stolen, and your list was in it." Several factors make this the biggest bullshit story I've heard in a while. First of all, he's had the information for weeks, if it was so easy, why weren't they done by 2 hours before the deadline? Secondly, I SENT HIM AN EMAIL!!! The guy didn't HAVE my email in his in-box or anywhere on his hard drive??? Come ON! I find it hard to believe that the ONLY copy was a printed out one in his briefcase. Um, great. So I was assured that the signs would be at the course NO LATER THAN 9am. Well, I want proofs of the signs.
"Ok, I'll email them when I'm done."

About 2PM, I get an email, no attachment. I reply as such. Another one comes, nothing attached. At 3, I called him. "I haven't gotten an email with the proofs yet."
"oh, yeah.. it's 10 Megabytes, so it won't let me send it. I'm packing up your signs right now."
"So you made them without showing me the proofs?"
"I triple checked.. they all look good."
"No, please fax me the proofs."
"Um, that'll be like 20 pages.."
"Yes, I know. I'll await your fax, we have to make sure there aren't any you need to remake."
"Ok, I'll send them now."

4PM, I got the fax, they were all ok. I called to confirm and restate the time frame, and I prayed! So they DID get to the course, they were out on the course on time, and other than a couple of small issues, the day went off without a hitch. Assemblywoman Kehoe was fantastic, and the food and tent were great. I was very proud, and we raised over $20,000! That's a nice number to say.

Anyway, Robin (our CEO) was so thrilled, and after dinner she told us she wanted us to take a day off of our choosing as kudos for the fantastic event. That was great.

Mia woke up from her nap on Saturday with a 101 fever, UGH, and the termites are back, so it's not a perfect weekend. But thankfully the Motrin did the trick, and today (Sunday) she woke up fine at 7:50 AM (wow, did she sleep in!) and we walked to Starbucks. Our Sunday routine. The staff there loves her, and Craig called my cell phone as we were walking there and it was pretty amazing to think I was on the phone with him in Iraq while drinking my coffee! Mia talked to him on the phone for a bit (mostly "yeah! Yeah!" so he asked a lot of yes/no questions..hehe), and the day goes on. Mia's now napping and I'm watching the Charger game now.. they just lost the lead against the Texans, we'll see how it turns out. More soon... this week should be MUCH more sane, filled with real marketing duties and my lunch hours will be spent getting stuff for Mia's party! Only 2 weeks away.

Off to do the dishes.. season finale of 6 Feet Under and Entourage tonight. They'll be missed for another year. I just read that Curb Your Enthusiasm will start filming the next season in January, so Craig will be home for that one!

Labor Day Weekend

Well, Laboring is definitely what I did this weekend. Termites are in full-force, and it was 90+ degrees this weekend and I could not run my air conditioning. So we spent Sunday night at Wendi's house. Mia was an angel.. with any luck, she won't catch Jake or Wendi's colds, but whatever. I needed to get out of this bug-infested sauna. I was afraid to come home, but it wasn't totally horrible. Lots of wings everywhere, some bugs too, and a bunch of dying ones in my sink. Ick.

In hindsight I'm just so angry that I didn't make a bigger deal about the exterminators coming to see this place before the holiday weekend... I have a child & a pet, and could not run my A/C because of these things. That's unacceptable. So today between 11-12 I'll know what the course of action is. More soon.

I took Craig's email & snail mail addies off the blog b/c he told me that they can't be here. If you need either or both, please email me, I'll send them to you.

Time to get ready for work/daycare, at least it's a short week... golf tournament is Friday, and i cannot WAIT for that to be OVER!!

A bit more light-hearted

Well, termites suck. The exterminators will be at my place to inspect the situation on Tuesday... yeah, loving the holiday weekend right now. I think I might have a sleepover elsewhere!

Anyway, Mia is having a great week. She is consistently cracking me up lately. A couple of recent funnies:

Last night, I was getting her in her PJs and she said, "Look at my TOES!"
I said, "How many toes do you have?"
"1...2...3...4...5!"
"And on the other foot?"
"1...2...3...4...5!"
"how many is THAT?" I'm hoping and dreaming that she's about to grasp addition.

"A LOT!" I was laughing so hard, I couldn't correct her..hahaha...

Then today... First I have to tell you that Craig called this morning to hear Mia's voice. I sent him a DVD of her, but he can't play it on his laptop because it makes it go nuts. Super. Anyway, she talked on the phone this morning, and told him all about her pony ride. At her preschool they had ponies, and took pictures of the kids on them! I had NO advance warning (neither did the teachers, apparently, someone made the appointment and they all forgot!), but the great news is, I can buy the pictures today if they're cute! So she enjoys talking to Daddy on the phone, and after we were off I went to look at pictures with her. She saw a picture of Craig hugging her, and she said, "I want to see Daddy."
"I know, sweetie, I do to.. he's on a trip now, remember?"
"Yeah. On a trip."
Then I got to a picture of Mia, my mother and me. I said, "Who's that?"
"GRAMMY!"
"Right! Grammy is mommy's mom. She's MY mommy." (I figured she might understand)
She pointed to me in the picture and said, "That's Aviva." Clear as a bell! "That's Aviva right there." Julie has been babysitting for her and taught her my name!
I said, "What's Daddy's name?"
"Craig."
"But Aviva's name is really Mommy, right?"
"Yeah!"

Hoping to have a fun weekend with her. She's still coughing a lot and there are termites therefore no hope of turning on my A/C in the 90+ heat.. but we'll try to stay in the A/C elsewhere.

Many thanks to the best hubby in the world who sent me a digital Elph camera from Amazon because I wasn't happy about taking that giant Rebel SLR everywhere. You're the best, baby. I love it.

More during the weekend! Tonight I think I'll take her out to dinner. I'll avoid the termite wings as a side-dish. Ick.

Never say it can only get better

Termites. Falling from the friggin' ceiling onto my couch and carpet in my living room. My property manager called back after I left the message, she has to call the association in the morning (she doesn't even get to work until 10:30, I think it's fully bull that I have to wait to find out about this!) and has to wait for them to call her back and tell her what to do! WHAT THE HELL??? There are pests in our house. She says, "Are they flying around? Or crawling somewhere?" I told her they're falling from the ceiling because why else would they be all over the couch & the carpet! She's trying to make it sound like I left the window open and they walked in.. Criminy. As a matter of fact, Mia discovered them. She walks over, "Here, Mommy" and hands me one. And I was like, "where did you get this?" she didn't show me, and I just thought she found a bug so I flushed it. Then she brings me another one a few minutes later, and I look at the couch and see them on there! Oh, it's DISGUSTING.. They're all on the carpet too by the sliding glass door all the way around by the fireplace..

I think what happened was the air conditioning air blew them down from the ceiling. But I turned off the air so that maybe they'll stay up there. I'm more pissed thinking about the fact that we'll probably have to have the exterminators come and we'll have to leave for a few days, kennel KC and then I'll have to hire someone to SCOUR this place b/c there will be chemicals everywhere... I'll have to put mia's toys all in her room and cover them with something so that she doesn't touch the chemicals.. This is a nightmare.

Counting my blessings... it can always be worse. My boss, our Marketing VP, had rats in her house that she could hear scurrying in the ceiling & walls at night. And recently a maggot fell on her head through a ceiling vent while she was on the toilet b/c there was a dead rodent.

Ok, i'm going to shower now...

A lot to tell you

Let's see... it's been a while. Things have improved with the difficult child, first of all. Ends up she was coming down with a cold and just having a bad week. Her behavior has improved at daycare and with me, I'm happy to report. I got some classic footage of her reading last night, I'm so excited to put it on DVD for Craig! Must get more.

Went to see Bebel Gilberto last night, daughter of famed Joao Gilberto, the father of bossa-nova. Saw her at a favorite venue here, the Belly Up. Amazing show. Great company, I went with two of my coworkers, and was thrilled to have Wendi watch Mia. Mia just LOVES her Auntie Wendi! She's been talking about her all day today. It feels amazing to have no guilt and feel so good about leaving her with such a close friend, it was great. Anyway, the room at the show was full of Brazilian hotties speaking Portugese, in my opinion the sexiest language in the world. That didn't suck. And it was an overall fabulous night.

However, I got home late, hit the bed at midnight, and awoke to a chorus of Mia's horrible cough at 5:30, so I showered quickly and tried to wake myself up. Ugh, tired. And worried about Mia's cough, I made an appointment at the doctor; her M.O. is to get this cough and it's because of post nasal drip from an ear infection, so I didn't want to fool around. Thankfully, she's fine. The doc that saw her had never met her, and she behaved SO well! She opened wide & stuck out her tongue, sat quietly while she listened to her heart, she was an ANGEL kid! She remembers that when we go there she gets a token to use in this little machine with Fred Flintstone and it pops out an egg with a sticker in it. She even remembered that once we got Nemo stickers! We picked up a decongestant that the doc prescribed, had a bite of Cold Stone (oh yeah, the kid not only loves ice cream & Jamba juice, she spots the logos and asks for it if we're nearby! I can't take her with me to that shopping center anymore!

So today I had such a stressful day, I totally forgot that I had arranged for the locksmith to come fix our loose front door lock, and when he called me he was here waiting for me. Miscommunication because i TOLD him to call me when he was on his way, because I work around the block and can just run home.. well, he didn't and when he was at my front door and called me, I was a 15 minute drive away ordering awards for the golf tournament I'm organizing. ACK! So THEN he's giving me attitude, like, "I drove all the way from Alpine and wasted the trip!" and I told him that I had no idea he was coming from Alpine, and he should've called me on his way since that is what we had arranged. I'm sure we got off the phone and he hated me, but I could give a rip. I have to reschedule that.

Mia is so damn smart sometimes I can see her brain develop from day to day! She loves being read to more than ever, and she's so much more understanding when I talk to her. Not if she's angry or anything, but in general she gets it. Her favorite now is that she talks to KC or inanimate objects and when I react to what she's saying or if I say, "What?" she says, "I'm TALKING to KC!" or Woody or her bear, or whatever. She told her teddy bear "I love you" today and hugged it. Too cute. She's started saying, "I love you too, Mommy" when I tell her I love her. It is amazing.

Anyway, holiday weekend this weekend... hopefully it's pretty full of stuff to do. I hate to say this knowing what Craig is dealing with, but it's friggin' HOT here! The web says 85, but i think it must be hotter than that. It's gross, and I had to turn the A/C back on.

OH, let me reference this thought here. It was a comment made by my dear friend, Ayelet, and I really couldn't agree more. I have one lousy lunch hour in which to conduct errand-type daily business; particularly valuable time as it's Mia-free. I have to send packages to Craig.. post office; daytime, closes at 5. Or I have to hit the uniform store for him on base, also daytime and better done Mia-free. Well I have work stuff to accomplish during lunch sometimes, or I have other crap, it's so FRUSTRATING! THough I might start taking advantage of our errand service chick to do stuff that isn't on base. Hmm. (we have a chick who comes to my work and will run errands for you. She's paid by the credit union, so it's pretty sweet. I'd actually forgotten about that until just now. Nice.

Ok, off to spend quality time with my darling girl. It's her dinner time. More soon.. and Craig's doing well, for those who don't know. His Amazon wish list is pretty updated, so if you want to send him a book or something, go there!