Ceptin' I Don't Know HOW to Order Starbucks

This morning I took my monthly... What does the doctor call it?... Oh yeah!... "steroid pulse." What that means is that tomorrow I'll feel great and really notice the carpet on my bare feet and barely notice the invisible wool knee socks I usually wear and all the colors will seem brighter and I won't pee. Actually, the not peeing will last longer than just tomorrow. TMI? Sorry.

But today, since the magic meds haven't had time to sufficiently tame any of Wild Inflammation I might have going on, I feel kind of cloudy. Partly because the feeling has been coming on for a couple of days (thank you, MS - you suck), and partly because I didn't have any coffee with my steroids 'cause that might upset my stomach and make me jittery. Extra jittery. But I think I should have had coffee. So after I dropped Lulu off at school, watched Pete's class for half-an-hour, and then sorted books, I went to the grocery store, where they are nice enough to have a Starbucks right inside the door in case you don't have time to drink coffee at home before you do your shopping. And I almost got some. Except, here's the thing, I don't know how to order there. What if I say the wrong size because isn't a small called something that doesn't sound small? And what if I just want plain old coffee? They have all those extra things! I know I just have to order "coffee." I could probably even order a "small coffee" and they would know what I mean, but it's so intimidating! And what if I want sugar? Do I tell them that? If so, why do they have the sugar off to the side? If not, what's all that extra stuff they're yelling to each other when someone buys something? If only there had been a Bojangles in the parking lot. I could have come with my own coffee.

Ooooo! I just had a money-making idea! Someone should give Starbucks Ordering Workshops. Except for it can't be me giving the workshops because I don't know how. But if you do it, I want a finders fee, okay?

I'm a Quitter

I just sent an email to the PTA president and vice president resigning my committee chairpersonship. I suck at it. Plus, nobody would help me. So maybe I don't suck at it, but I'm not pushy enough to make people help me, and there was too much to do for just one person. I spent too much time worrying. It actually kept me awake sometimes. After the first of the year, someone has to start planning the spring fling. I'd like to help with that, but I don't want to do the whole thing by myself, and that's what was going to happen. Since I resigned, that job now belongs to the PTA board, which is way bigger than my committee ever was, even when Pete and her stuffed animals came to the meeting. And they can do it together and not expect that I'm doing it when I'm not.

On a more positive note, in the same letter I proposed that they remove the responsibility of membership from this committee and I offered to keep working on this. Last year's chair agreed with me that membership should be a separate thing.

I just don't want to be the social director for a bunch of people who won't help anymore. It's discouraging.

So, yeah, I'm a quitter, but I was very professional about it. I'll post the letter if you're interested. Let me know...

Challenge

Okay. Work this word into a conversation:

"omphaloskepsis = navel-contemplation"

So you know, I got that word right at freerice.com. I got it right! Because of the ompha part. Finally! I'm using my Med Trans training to do some good.

Christmas Past

The Christmas gifts I remember best from when I was little didn't come from Santa, or even from Santa's little elf-helper, Sprinkle (who had handwriting that was very similar to my dad's...). They were from my parents. One was this little stove that my dad built, and the other was a cloth book that my mom made and won first prize, etc., at the Ohio State Fair. I still have the book, and the stove was part of the inspiration for Pete's 2nd birthday present, a play kitchen built by Husbandguy and painted with my help. So here's the thing. Santa's cool and all, and having children who believe in Santa kind of makes him real again for me in a way, and it's fun to visit our mall Santa and deliver what they've requested every year (so far it's been easy), but I hope that when Pete and Lulu grow up they can't remember what Santa brought them. Maybe instead they will remember helping me put my grandma's red birds on the tree and helping their dad hang the lights on the house and pinning the felt ornaments on the advent calendar tree that my aunt made when I was little and making a present for someone else in the family as part of my other grandma's gift exchange. And when their kids say, "Mom? Would you tell me a story of when you were little?" they will tell them about that.

Don't Hate Me Because I'm...

...done with all my Christmas shopping. You thought I was going to say "beautiful." Didn't you? Oh come on! You know me better than that.

Anyway, Santa ordered her his last present for the girls yesterday (it's cool - and kind of expensive - but Lulu and Pete are both going to like it even though it's mainly for Lulu). And I've been done shopping for Husbandguy and Moomie and Big Brother and Uncle Monkey and their families for a couple of weeks now. Oh wait! I have a couple of gifts I'm waiting until a little closer to the end of the month to get because they're perishable or would arrive too soon if I get them now. So I guess I'm not done. But still. I don't have anything Christmasy to do right now.

I think I'll make eggnog breads. Those are so pretty when they're all done. See?

You're going to have to wait on the picture. Our internet service is sucky again. But trust me. They're pretty.

P-New-Moan-Ya (Almost)

Remember how Pete had a fever on Thursday? Well, I kept her home on Friday and she still had a fever. She might have had a fever on Saturday but we didn't check because she wanted to go see Santa and said she felt fine. We checked on Sunday, and she did have a fever and also on Monday, when I kept her home from school again. So we went to the doctor who listened to her breathe and say, "Eeeeee," a whole lot and then said, "I don't think it's pneumonia." With any other doctor, I would have immediately questioned the "I don't think..." but I trust Dr. Y. She's been our pediatrician since Pete was a day old in the hospital. So I waited and she went on to say, then, "If we don't treat it, it could become pneumonia." Apparently poor little Pete had a little fluid in her left lung. Yikes! I hadn't even considered pneumonia! The good news is, though, that we went to the doctor in time, and now Pete is taking an antibiotic and that anti-mucus medicine, and she's been fever-free all day and did great at her piano lesson in spite of not practicing at all since last Wednesday. And tomorrow she'll go back to school and won't miss the book fair and I can go do the volunteer thing I'm signed up to do and everything will be normal again. Phew! And an advantage of Montessori school: if you're out sick for three days, you're not exactly behind. You might miss a "special," but you don't miss a lesson and have to make it up.

Our ISP Sucks!

A few years ago, Husbandguy and I got tired of the intermittantly available internet service we had and we switched to what we though was a better choice. The company we had our service from, which was originally a long distance company, wouldn't admit that the problem was on their end when we called "customer service" and told me to do all the things I had already tried on my end to reconnect. I hate calling customer service. So anyway we switched and had pretty good access for several years. Recently, though, our service was aquired by our original ISP, and guess what! We have had patchy or NO service for the last four days! DH called customer service and got a BUSY SIGNAL! You shouldn't ever get a busy signal from the customer service number at a large corporation. I'm just saying. When he finally got through, he got a message that said there was a "region-wide outage" and that the CS clerks didn't have any more information than that and that if he wanted to hold, his wait could be "greater than 60 minutes." Um. They suck. I'll be lucky to get this posted before it gives out again, I think, so don't be sad that you didn't get your "Pete Says:" this week. Blame it on The Corporation.

For TGFKABPG

Christmas on the...

Okay. Husbandguy and I do this thing at Christmas time where we'll see Christmas lights or decorations when we're driving around and we'll say, "Christmas on the right!" or "Christmas on the left!" And if we see someone bringing home a tree, we'll say...hahaha...we'll say, "Christmas on the..." hahaha... "Christmas on the car!" hahahahahaha! We're so funny! Hahahahaha!!

But at the mall on Saturday, we really did see Christmas on the car. It was dark when we were leaving and DH said, "Look at the Jeep!" and we looked and there was this Jeep driving around all covered with lights! That Jeep guy is silly. Now I'm tempted to do DH's car...

Picture with Santa

Yesterday the girls took us to see Santa Claus. Since she's a toddler, we weren't sure how Lulu would react to the big guy (her moment of recognition aside), but we got her into the same dress Pete wore in her first picture with Santa and headed out to the mall. On a Saturday afternoon. After Thanksgiving. Bleh! It wasn't too bad, though, and the line to see Santa wasn't Super Long like it usually is when we go (except last year when we went the weekend before Thanksgiving and there was no line). There was a little line, though, and Lulu didn't want to stand in it so Husbandguy took her and stood off to the side where she could watch Santa ho-ho-ho-ing while Pete and I waited in line. When it was our turn, he put her down and sent her my direction, and she started to come but then changed her mind and looked like she was going to run off (in a you-can't-catch-me way, not a scared way). And then... Santa called her (real) name! "Lulu," he said. And she stopped dead in her tracks and turned, as if in slow motion, and peered at him like, "How do you know my name?" Still not scared though. Then he called Pete over to him, by her (real) name, and Pete went, and Santa motioned to Lulu to come to him, and Lulu went, and they both wound up in his lap. He ho-ho-ho-ed with them for a minute. Then it was time to take the picture. The Cheese Elf waved her stuffed lion and said, "Lulu! Look at my lion!" and Lulu looked at it like "Yeah. And?" so I said, "Smile with your teeth!" and Lulu broke out the cutest smile, teeth and all, and the Cheese Elf snapped the picture. Awww! Thank goodness for smile-with-your-teeth! Santa was even impressed. He said, "If only they were all like that," and made the Money-Taking Elf show him the photo before he handed it over to us.

I hate to admit it, but this is actually only my second favorite picture-with-Santa. My first favorite is the one when Pete is wearing the same dress Lulu wore yesterday, and we couldn't get her to smile pretty, and while I was debating between two great shots, the demonic smile or the gloomy thunder cloud face she made when we told her to Please stop smiling!, the Cheese Elf looked up and snapped the most precious shot of Santa reading to Pete. That's my favorite. Sorry Lulu. You weren't there. But this is my first favorite picture-with-Santa story.

Also, Pete's mom knows how Santa knew their names. It's because this Santa is the Real Santa. He has to be. He's in all of Pete's Santa pictures since 2003.