sethrak

Today's list of doom:

Make oatmeal raisin cookies to tempt my sickly Jack-jack's finicky morning appetite. (They're basically small round lumps of oatmeal with raisins... ::cough:: )

Laundry. (Possibly with Fraggle accompaniment on youtube. I realize Boober had a most unFragglish dislike of song and dance, but his passion for laundry may have overridden that...)

Judge Mathis. I've had my fill of Backyardigans for the nonce, and the boys have lovely new toys to entertain themselves with.

Figuring out where I want to hang the lovely art print Tom got me for Christmas. :D

Possible trip to the library to pick up my holds and pay my overdue fines from last summer, weather and Zodlings permitting. The latter issue may be assisted by Tom's work schedule; they're on half days for the rest of the week, and therefore I may be able to leave them with him. Depends on how sick he still is.

Cross stitch. SO close to being done with the panda project... It would be nice to start the new year with it completed.

Saturday, I went Christmas shopping solo, while Tom watched the boys, who were being exceedingly goofy even for them. I got my watch clasp fixed, bought Tom's Christmas present, and ordered some awesome red velvet cupcakes for him and his office, to be ready on his birthday next week as a surprise. Wandered around the old historic shopping section of COS, and went home feeling quite pleased with myself.

Sunday was a bit less pleasant, as it was too damned cold to unleash the Zodling Duo on the backyard, and they were even goofier than they'd been the previous day, for reasons we could not determine. They've been cooped up in the house because of inclement weather before, and not been remotely this aggravating. :/ Tom made brownies. I made oatmeal raisin cookies, and my super-easy Mark-safe fried rice for dinner, since Tom was expecting to get called in to work if Things Happened requiring Public Affairs to respond. (Didn't, but better to be prepared.)

Monday started out well. Still cold, and Mark refused to wear gloves at the bus stop. But both boys kept their hats on, and Mark at least had the sense to keep his hands in his overlong sleeves most of the time. Jack kept his mittens on like a very good boy, and had a blast exploring the snow and listening to it crunch under his boots. :D

After they were off to school, I decided that since my stomach was mildly acting up and it was ridiculously cold, I would take a nice luxurious nap. I was caught up on laundry; Tom had recently deep-cleaned the bathrooms; and there wasn't anything I really *had* to do regarding housework or other domestic goddess tasks.

Everything seemed fine, aside from minor stupid gastro. tricks. I was looking forward to having a nice rest of the week too. Tomorrow Mark has an allergist appt. at the Academy's hospital, which I can actually drive to, unlike the Ft. Carson medical group. Tomorrow night D11 Special Ed Services is holding a Parents' Night Off for two hours, and Tom and I were planning to go to either HuHot Mongolian Grill or a Chinese buffet with our free time. :D Friday night one of Tom's superiors is hosting a holiday party to which children are welcome, and a white elephant gift exchange will be held. We were looking forward to that a lot. I was planning to make both Mark-safe cookies and the decidedly NOT Mark-safe butterscotch oatmeal cookies that Tom's coworkers rave about every time I send some with Tom.

And of course this weekend: The Hobbit. :D :D :D :D :D

Tom and I will have to take turns going, but it'll be WORTH it. :D :D :D :D :D



Then I decided to check my purse, late in the afternoon, to see if I had enough cash to take Jack to Culver's this afternoon before his occupational therapy.

And I found my wallet was gone. o_o

My mil. ID, driver's license, cell, keys ipod, checkbook, and oddly enough my Sam's Club membership card, had not been in the wallet, and were still present and accounted for.

My copy of our joint credit card, my personal account's debit card, and my JCP credit card, however..... x_x

Ransacked the purse, the laundry room, the card, my room, the library on a longshot, and even Mark's room in case he'd been digging in my purse and taken the wallet up there to play with.

To no avail. Tried calling Mya Bella Cupcakes, the last place I remembered having the wallet out, but they're closed Sundays and Mondays.

Explaining this to Tom, who got home shortly thereafter, was NOT PLEASANT.

The stress of trying a last-ditch effort to find the damn wallet nearly triggered a full-blown attack of stupid gastro. tricks, and definitely set off a bad enough reaction to give me an unpleasant night's sleep. :(

In the end, he reported our joint account card missing, which meant the bank locked out his card too - right before Christmas ::wince:: - and we'll get replacements sent in 7-10 business days. I reported my JCP card missing, got the acct. locked down, and will also get a new card sent in about that length of time. Neither account had had any unauthorized purchases, thank God.

My personal debit card is handled directly through the credit union, which is in Omaha, and they were closed for the day by the time I called. :( Called this morning as soon as they opened; got the card locked; will get the forms needed for ordering a new card via email, as they cannot do that directly over the phone when a credit union member hasn't used her account in so long she's forgotten the PIN. ::face-palm::

Still going to try calling Mya Bella to see if they happen to have the wallet behind the counter, as I had a small amount of cash and a large number of customer loyalty cards. Also my library card. :( They won't open til 11, but I'm hoping someone will be in the shop earlier for work.

God damn it. I thought I was being so careful. :(

Here's hoping a little self-care can salvage my health enough to keep the rest of the week from being torpedoed. I WANT to go out to dinner with my Tom tomorrow night. I WANT to go to that Christmas party. I REALLY REALLY WANT to see The Hobbit opening weekend, and to have Tom have to go too, even if we can't go together.

Next week. ::sideways look::

I have a good excuse for procrastinating, though.

Two, in fact.

First, due in part to office politics, Tom's section at work have been switched to providing 24 hour coverage of their desks, in 12 hour shifts. Tonight, for example, Tom's working 8 pm to 8 am tomorrow. He's had a couple days to adjust his sleep schedule, but in conjunction with reason two, it's played merry hell with mine.

Secondly, Mark once again has NOT responded well to daylight savings time. Bad enough when he wakes up shortly before 5 am, under the impression it's actually 6 am. This morning, he woke up between 3 and 3:30 am, and had to be repeatedly chased back to bed. Fortunately for me, Tom was still up, as part of his sleep schedule tweaking. But I couldn't get back to sleep, because every time Mark got sent back to bed, he screamed at the top of his lungs in rage and indignation. x_x

So no cross stitch today. Or baking. And I lack the active neurons to comment on my recent adventures in going dairy-free.

But we're working with his ABA therapist on the sleep problems. And he went to sleep within minutes of going to bed tonight. So I'm hoping I'll have more energy to do things, and blog about them, instead of venting about annoyances that pale in comparison to what the people in Sandy's path have to put up with.

In the meantime - laundry folding, then sleeeeeeep. Precious, precious sleeeeeep.

Tom came home from work while the boys and I were in the middle of dinner, looking sick and wan, and went straight to bed without eating anything. He spent most of the night throwing up. We think he caught the bug Mark had earlier.

The boys and I finished our dinners, then watched tv for a bit before sending them to bed. As I laid on the couch afterwards, watching the tail-end of Dancing with the Stars, much to my astonishment I got smacked with an attack of IBS. God damn it, I've been really careful with my diet and activity levels! ::wince::

As a result, I did not make Mark-safe donuts from scratch for his pre-Halloween-parade breakfast at school this morning, as intended. Instead, I broke out the emergency can of Mark-safe cinnamon rolls this morning, and made him those. He was thrilled. Pissed that I insisted they were for school, mind you. Heh.

Shoved the boys into their school clothes and Mark into his Optimus Prime costume on top of his school clothes. Tossed them on their buses. Went to lie down on the couch like a Victorian invalid. Too tired to even watch tv, so I put on the local classical station's internet stream.

Feeling marginally better now, enough to get online and sip apple juice. Haven't eaten anything yet; but I'd better soon lest I cross the line into being sick from lack of food. :/

Tom's currently at work, because between the readiness exercise and the stuff going on at various bases affected by Sandy, NORAD Public Affairs has entirely too much to do. He called a little bit ago to check on me, and sounded miserable. Our original plan for Halloween was for him to take Mark out trick-or-treating while I stayed home with Jack and passed out candy, and then we'd appropriate anything not Mark-safe (which would be just about everything, cough). Right now it's looking like that will not happen. Mark won't mind. He doesn't entirely grok trick-or-treat, and there's three cinnamon rolls left for him to nom.

I am going to lay back down after checking email. I got all the domestic goddess projects done that HAD TO be done within the last day or two; I can and absolutely need to take a break before Zodlings return.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling well enough to work on my cross stitch some more. This project's so close to being done...

The boys got up and ate their breakfasts reasonably well. My stomach didn't cause me much trouble. We got out the door on time for Mark's scheduled parent-teacher conference, which went well. Then we made brief stops at JCP, to pay my bill, and Whole Foods, to get some dairy-free substitutes for a couple of my fave snacks.

Then we got home, and I started feeling wobbly while making the boys' lunch. I decided to postpone my own lunch, and laid on the couch a while, rousing briefly every so often to put on a fresh Netflix episode of Backyardigans or sip some water.

Just as I was nibbling on my own lunch, Mark, who'd been drowsing on the couch, suddenly let out a small shriek of pain. He bolted upright, ran into the bathroom, and screamed even louder. I checked on him. He'd thrown up massively. :( Gave him an emergency bath and clean clothes, and he went into his room of his own volition to lay back down again.

Cleaned up the bathroom, and am now trying to resume lunch, lest I get another hunger headache.

Not going to make vegan oatmeal-raisin cookies after all. Not feeling up to it, after that cleanup job. ::wrinkles nose:: Maybe tomorrow, if whatever poor Mark has passes quickly.

But dinner shouldn't be a problem. Keeping it simpler than last night's dinner, just grilled porkchops, bread, and some sort of veggie.

Last night's dinner turned out pretty damn good, even if, as expected, the Zodling Duo snubbed half of it. I adapted a fried rice recipe I found online to be Mark-safe (basically, just leave off the scrambled egg step), and it was great. :D :D :D I ate half, and Tom polished off the second half when he come home. All the boys ate was their baked chicken. More for us. :D

Right now, in addition to being just below freezing, we've got snow flurries. Denver is getting a heavier hit than that, judging by Facebook friends. Driving to Jack's PTC tomorrow may be tricky. ::crosses fingers::

http://news.yahoo.com/mormon-feminists-yes-exist-theyre-obama-025147436.html

***



Jack's home from preschool. Got the cookies done and in a container just in time before his bus. ^_^ "V!"

Ate all his triscuits, but snubbed his chicken, hopefully that'll change soon. I had leftover steak and taters from our anniversary dinner. Damn, my man can cook!


Spending the afternoon at home with him, watching dvds and playing quietly, as I am still really tired and his therapist called in sick.

Also, in a moment of weakness, made a pinterest board. Because I totally have time/energy for more social media time wasters. ::amused face-palm::

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/18/ben-stein-jokes-that-fox-news-might-kill-him-for-telling-them-taxes-are-too-low/

But, but, you'll frighten the job creators!



http://www.wgnradio.com/news/top/chi-walsh-duckworth-clash-on-medicare-abortion-20121018,0,4118256.story

Walsh said he was against abortion “without exception,” including rape, incest and in cases in which the life or health of the mother was in jeopardy.

Asked by reporters after the debate if he was saying that it’s never medically necessary to conduct an abortion to save the life of a mother, Walsh responded, “Absolutely.”

“With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance,” he said. “... There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.”

What do they teach them in these schools?



http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/10/18/1040901/breaking-federal-appeals-court-strikes-down-doma-in-opinion-by-republican-appointed-judge/?rc=fbp&mobile=nc

Wooot!!!!




http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/18/lies-from-pit-of-hell-congressmans-opponents-mounting-write-in-campaign-for-darwin/

http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2012-10-17/its-broun-vs-darwin-congress#.UH7440kASN8.facebook

https://www.facebook.com/DarwinForCongress

The first URL pretty much explains what all three links are discussing.




Stomach's eased off enough to let me try eating breakfast in a sec. For a while there I was worried I was developing the chills that portend a major IBS outbreak - but it turned out Mark had switched the electronic thermostat to a/c instead of heat.

I approve of teacher training days in theory, but in practice, today it sucks.

and Mark develops a stomach bug at both ends.

Poor boy. Keeping him home today, and very cautiously falling off the caffeine wagon.

Completely normal.

Which means by process of elimination, they are diagnosing me with irritable bowel syndrome, and will have Dr. Baker's scheduling person call me later to arrange an appt. to discuss treatment.

A preliminary skim of the wikipedia article on IBS does seem to be spot on for most of my symptoms; they just had to eliminate the more dangerous look-alike problems first, as I had dangerous weight loss and no family history of IBS, which are giant red flags that it's probably something else. (Doesn't explain the fever/chill/sweats... ::shrug::)

The treatment section of the article's a lot vaguer, so I'll wait til Dr. Baker talks to me before trying to alter my diet or anything else.

I'm glad this appears to mean no more tests, needles, or IV lines; the site where they did the IV for the radioactive marker fluid Monday, which is where they've done all the other stuff, is bruising a bit, and frankly I'm sick of getting jabbed.

In the meantime, I am hugging my Jack-jack, currently home from pre-school for the afternoon, and resting.

Every single test has come back negative. The biopsies for celiac and H.pylori. The ultrasound. Everything.

But I'm still having symptoms.

Next step is something called a HIDO graph; having that done the 27th.

We are running out of options for WTF this can possibly be. :(