Starting Over

Okay, people . . . I’m starting a new blog (with the hopes that a new blog will help foster some creativity and get the thoughts flowing again . . . ) and here’s the address:

melissaestes.wordpress.com

Announcement

Three months and no postings? Crazy, but true. I just haven’t had the time or the desire to write anything lately. The biggest reason would probably be the fact that we are moving to Texas . . . on Friday. This is a good thing: we’ll be closer to family; away from the cold, dreary winters; in a growing, low-cost-of-living area and in a nice small town (but still close enough to Houston to do cool stuff). The bad thing is leaving our STL friends.  (I’m really going to miss girls’ night!) Oh, and leaving Trader Joe’s. I paid a farewell visit today and decided to launch a “Bring Trader Joe’s to Texas” campaign because I am REALLY going to miss that place!

Sorry for the short notice, but I haven’t wanted to make an announcement until we had all the details taken care of. The major details are finally taken care of, for the most part. Most of the big decisions came down to wire – getting living arrangements taken care of, job details . . . trust me – it has been terribly crazy and stressful. And so far, we’re surviving; however, our mental and emotional well-being is questionable. 🙂  But on a good note, everything seems to be working out. So if I can survive the next week of packing, one week of homelessness (we’ll be in transition at Chris’s dad’s) and then the unpacking, I’ll be amazed.

We’ve Had Enough Illness, Thank You Very Much

My blissful night’s sleep was interrupted early Saturday morning by wailing and gnashing of teeth – Matthew darted into our room in tears at 3 am, emitting enough heat to toast a marshmallow. He was blubbering something and in my 3 am stupor, I had no idea what he was saying – so after the second incoherent sentence from him, I finally lifted my head off the pillow and said, “What are you saying?”

The kid immediately stopped crying and and looked at me as if to say, Don’t you understand English? And then he yelled, “I. HAVE. TOO. MUCH. SNOT!” Okay. I get it now. Thank you. So I dosed him up with Advil and decongestant and he slept with us the rest of the night. Chris and I didn’t sleep, as Matt snored and coughed and tossed and emitted mass amounts of heat and slept diagonally across the bed.

About 5 am, Chris asked me, “Can you move over? I don’t have any room over here.”  My response was not exactly nice, as I had been trying to sleep on the edge of the bed without falling off and wondering if HE could move over.  He then got the bright idea to drag a blow up mattress in the room and let Matthew “camp out” instead of us “kicking him out of the bed.” Poor Matt felt miserable all day Saturday, but today he feels better. Cheetos help. It just seems that every weekend for the past couple of months, someone has been sick. I will be SO glad for cold/flu/plague season to be over.

And I just realized that I did not go anywhere this weekend. In fact, I did no laundry this weekend, either. And I only wore pajamas.  Chris did all the shopping and the laundry. And, other than having a sick kid, it was wonderful. I’m sure I’ll spend time this week trying to figure out how that happened and how to make it happen again. Soon.

Lost In The Space-Time Continuum

That’s how I feel: like the days are flying by and I have no control over anything that’s going on. I guess that’s being a parent, right? Anyway, the past several days have been pretty typical: go to work, assist with homework, investigate strange odors and noises. The usual.

I did call 911 on my way to work the other day. I was sitting at a stop light at a 4 way intersection – the intersection is crossed diagonally by a train track – and a driver missed his turn and started driving down the train track. I immediately called 911 because he got his car stuck and obviously was in mortal danger from the next train that happened by. Don’t you remember those horrible film strips from drivers ed where they show you the burned out, shattered carcasses of vehicles that tried to beat the train to the crossing? You don’t mess around with trains. Disaster was averted – the police rescued the guy and no trains or drivers were hurt.

In other news, Binki turned 16 years old. That’s WAY ancient for a dog. Like 112 years old or something like that. She is angry that we didn’t mark the occasion with a full blown celebration of cake and ice cream, but we figured we’d splurge and get the beef and cheddar flavor of her favorite dog food. She was not impressed.

Other random thoughts: why is it I can remember the lyrics to a billion songs, but can’t remember much of anything I learned in law school? I thought about this the other day on my way to work, when I turned on the radio and Welcome to the Jungle was playing. Great, I thought. Now I’m going to have Axl Rose in my head all day. And that is not a pretty picture. So I continued listening to the song, with the hopes that the next song would negate Axl Rose. And the next song was . . . Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. Of course. The world’s most irritating song would be next on the playlist.

So I then I wondered, why in the world can I sing Tubthumping almost verbatim, but had a terribly hard time mastering Supreme Court cases? Besides the fact that Supreme Court cases are deadly boring? Because no one has put law school cases to music, that’s why! If only I had thought of that years ago. Now these lyrics would be an instant hit, don’t you think?

Washington State wanted to sue
a Delaware corporation – International Shoe
“Lack of jurisdiction!” the defense cried
But Chief Justice Stone did not take their side
And so International Shoe had taxes to pay
To satisfy the notions of justice and fair play

Yes, this is how my brain works. Scary, isn’t it?

Matthew’s Rules For Staying Out Of Danger

Matthew was just a fountain of information tonight on how to be safe, so I thought I would jot them down so that all of us can practice safety:

1. Never ever go out in the street.

2. Never ever drink poison.

3. Never ever walk by a wolf. It will eat your head off.

4. Don’t stick your head in the microwave.

5. Never throw a bean bag at a monster.

6. Don’t do bad things to people.

7. Never get a Russian penpal from China.

8. Don’t take drugs.

9. Never ever pour water in your eyes.

10. Never ever stick your head in the toaster. It is for bread.

Toothless Wonder

Matthew had a loose tooth for about a week – and he wouldn’t let anybody near his mouth so I wasn’t too sure how loose it was and Brandon was denied the opportunity to rip a tooth out of his brother’s head. Tragic, I know. What more could a big brother want than to assist his little brother in losing a tooth? Anyway, this morning when I was fixing the boys breakfast, we discovered that Matt’s tooth had fallen out during the night. Brandon was hoping that he had swallowed it, but we found it laying in the bed. Then Brandon proceeded to tell Matthew how he could retrieve the tooth in the unfortunate event of swallowing it. Yuck. Boys.

Matthew was immediately dismayed that the Tooth Fairy did not leave him anything. I told him that he obviously missed the traditional tooth fairy deadline – it’s common knowledge that all baby teeth up for reimbursement must be out of the mouth by bedtime. The Tooth Fairy will return at the first bedtime after the loss of the tooth to provide funds for said tooth. This pacified him. Thank goodness, because the Tooth Fairy had to run by the ATM in order to provide cash for the baby tooth — Matthew does not take debit cards.

Flu Shot: Ineffective

Flu shot: $25

Urgent care visit: $50

Getting the flu anyway: Aggravating

Brandon started feeling bad last week, but being the evil mother I am, I sent him to school anyway – he wasn’t running a fever, so I made him soldier on. After all, he had a shop test on why you shouldn’t use the belt sander as an exfoliator. And that’s important to know.

Saturday night, Chris and I went to a dinner hosted by Chris’s agency and when we got home, Brandon had a fever. I took him to the urgent care center Sunday morning and the first thing they wanted to do was test him for the flu. “But he had the flu vaccine . . .” I said. That gave them about 2 seconds pause, then they stuck a giant cotton swab up Brandon’s nose – a few minutes later, the nurse came back and gave us the verdict: the flu.

Brandon was bummed – I was bummed. The doctor basically said he had to suffer through it. Brandon did crack a smile when he got a doctor’s note to miss a few days of school. He was still running a fever this morning, which I know secretly pleased him that he got another day’s reprieve from school.

When Matthew woke up this morning, he also had a fever. So he probably has the flu, too. We all dutifully got our flu shots, so now that they are proving ineffective Chris and I are just waiting for our turn to suffer. We’re cramming vitamins and vegetables and juice in an effort to stave it off. In the meantime, we are disinfecting everything and hoping that this passes quickly.

Tagged

My friend Missy tagged me!

The Rules:
1. Go to where you store your digital photos and open the 4th folder.
2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people.

Matthew - 6 months old

This is Matthew at 6 months old, enjoying one of those baby teething biscuits that, after getting all slobbery, dry to the consistency of concrete. We never got all the teething biscuit gunk off that walker.

I’m going to tag: Leslie, Wanda, Liz and Kristi.

My Baby’s Growing Up!

Matthew has a loose tooth – his first. He also has an older brother who would love nothing more than to rip that tooth right out of his head. Brandon has spent the entire evening trying to convince Matthew to trust his unlicensed practice of the dental arts. There have been mentions of pliers, wrenches, anesthesia, strings tied around doorknobs, and other various methods of yanking the tooth out. Matthew has been strong and has avoided letting Brandon near his mouth. I’m afraid that in the end, Brandon will be successful in convincing Matt to trust his limited knowledge of dental practice.

In any event, I’ll keep you posted on the status of said baby tooth and whether or not Brandon has a future as a dentist. It should be entertaining.

Can’t Say They Don’t Have A Sense of Humor

Ha ha . . . one of the local news channels did a special report on funeral homes and entitled it: “Funeral Companies Face Stiff Regulation.”