Several times these past few days I have found myself pondering "silver linings" and repeating the phrase "Thank God for small favors"

 

Lots of little stuff has been going "wrong", but the outcome of each seems to turn out ok...

 

Camera breaking: at least it didn't happen while we were on vacation and not able to do anything about it.  Small favor: we are going to Cincy first to drop kids off w/ my parents, and will most likely be able to borrow my sister's MUCH MUCH nicer, professional-quality camera.

 

Not being on the ball for Easter: less candy purchased (and consumed!), kids had no idea of the pending festivities because I had no preparations ahead of time!  Also didn't waste time and eggs on hardboiling / dyeing, we don't ever eat them anyways.  Waste not, want not!

 

Not having our act together enough to do be able one of the tours at Disney: We were able to switch which day we went to 2 of the parks, resulting in being able to spend a full day in Shawn's favorite park (old MGM, now called Hollywood Studios), AND being able to go to Epcot Future World on a day that is not rated busy, at the suggested "perfect" time according to Tour Guide Mike's Automated Vacation Planner (best $20 bucks we've EVER spent, and that's not just me being ocd, Shawn says it all the time too!). 

 

Our Disney concierge being out of the office until this Thursday, AND the regular team not answering my emails for two days (actually. we are officially on day 3 - UNACCEPTABLE!!!)... I called the Dining Reservations line myself and was able to get every restaurant I wanted, at the exact time I wanted, with only 11 days before the trip.  Folks, this is UNHEARD OF.  Even the lady making the reservations couldn't believe it.  The first request was a fluke, the second a happy coincidence... but all five restuarant changes... UNBELIEVABLE!!!  And we are eating at some of the nicest, most popular table service restaurants in all of Walt Disney World.  The lady helping me was making jokes about my magic touch... maybe I should select lottery numbers!  LOL

 

And speaking of Disney... I've been packing for the trip for a couple of weeks now (of course I have!).  I tried on outfits, figured out what else we needed, bought vacation clothes, special walking socks, Mickey Mouse luggage (yeah, you read that right, I couldn't help myself, it was on clearance!) and travel size toiletries... 

Wesley was upset this morning because he wanted to leave and go to Target (boy, do I have him trained!) and I said we had to go upstairs before we left to change his diaper and so that I could change into a different pair of pants.  In the time it took me to take off the pants I was wearing and make a very quick trip to the potty, Wesley got into my semi-packed suitcase, pulled out the travel-size shampoo, and POURED IT ALL OUT ONTO MY CARPET.  I was LIVID.  Especially after I tried to clean it up and it started foaming up, suds EVERYWHERE.  I called Shawn in a panic, our darn internet was down and I needed him to search on the internet for the best way to get shampoo out of carpet.  Once he read a recommendation to turn the brush off on the carpet steamer, I was in business!  It took almost an hour, but the shampoo is almost entirely out of the carpet now.  Small Favors: It was only travel sized!  God help me (and Wes) if he pours out a full sized bottle.  Also, since I had the carpet steamer out anyways, I attacked this dark purple stain that mysteriously showed up on our bedroom carpet one day (I suspect juice), and it came out entirely!  The whole room smells like Dove Cucumber shampoo (not unpleasant), and the area where he poured the shampoo is not stained.  You can tell where he did it though, because that spot is extra fluffy and soft now.  (good grief!)

 

Then after the shampoo snafu, and getting Colleen from preschool, I was supposed to take Shawn lunch.  I totally forgot and went to Rite Aid because they had a sale on sunglasses, 2 for 1, and Eucerin lotion (25% off).  I remembered his lunch as we were walking out the door, only to discover that I didn't have my cell with me.  So... we went back home, I chatted w/ Shawn and found out that he had been on a call helping a customer anyways.  I was able to take him lunch and he broke away from the call long enough to come out and pick up his lunch and kiss the kids.  All's well that ends well, although I still feel really bad for forgetting him!  Silver lining: I got the coolest sunglasses!  They are lightweight yet sturdy-feeling, inexpensive, and when I put them on, I actually forgot I was wearing them - they were that comfortable.

 

I am one Lucky Ducky!  Thank God for small favors!

 

Love, Jen

Easter caught me off guard this year.  Usually I am decorating far in advance for a holiday, planning and purchasing everything for it with lots of time to spare.  Not this time, the Easter bunny snuck right up behind me and goosed me in the rear.  I managed to pull it off though, and I don't think the kids noticed my lack of preparedness. 

 

I purchased a few bags of candy (very little, actually, I'm proud of myself!), Coco and Wes each got two books and a My Little Pony DVD.  He won't believe me when he is older, but Wes is actually the bigger My Little Pony fan.  He is always asking to watch it!  :)  They each got the required chocolate bunny, and we had a fun easter egg hunt in the morning.

 

I'd LOVE to post pictures, but... our camera is not cooperating.  It is a five year old digital camera, and we've had to send it in for repair once already.  It is a 5.0 megapixel and, while it was a terrific camera in it's day, it is not worth the repair fee for us to send it in again.  :(

 

So we are either going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new camera before our vacation (hate to buy cheap because cheap usually shows in picture quality), but I really do not want to buy a nice camera again right now, because our vacation fun money will take a direct hit from it!  :(

 

My sis has a very nice camera, I am going to ask her if we can borrow it while we are at Disney, and then we can take our time choosing (and saving up for!) a new camera for ourselves.  Arg!  What crappy timing for it to break!  Shawn reminds me that it could be worse... we could have discovered it was broke on our first day at Disney.  Thank God for small favors.  *sigh*

 

Hugs, Jen

Ugh.  Stupid time change did a number on me.  Last night my body was all "It's midnight, time to go to bed", when it was really 1am, and then I thought I was having allergies, so I took benedryl, which hyped me up and I didn't get to sleep till 2 or so.   Still had to get up at regular time, so I'm dragging.

 

Kept Colleen home from preschool today to take her to the doctor.  She was sent home from preschool the other day because she was complaining of chest pain and her heart was pounding.  It could be anxiety or her over doing physical activity, but it's not something we want to mess around with.  She has a benign heart murmur, which lept to my mind when her teacher called me (although, she had an ultrasound test when she was an infant, her heart is fully formed, no holes or valve issues).

 

So I take her to the doctor expecting an in and out type thing, Doc listens to her heart, pronounces her fine, we go home reassurred... and possibly with a handout instructing us how to deal with anxiety in a 4 year old.

 

Except, maybe it's not anxiety after all.  Doc wants to play it safe too.  So she gets her blood oxygen level and heart rate monitored (little thing on her finger).  Then she gets an EKG, FREAKS OUT because she doesn't like all the wires.  EKG shows a mild arrhythmia, most likely caused by her taking a deep breath.  Doc says this is not out of the ordinary for a child her age.  Sends us to the hospital to have a chest x-ray done and wants me to take her pulse every so often over the next couple of days and report the results back to him at the end of the week.

 

While we are in the doctor's office, Wes makes a stinky diaper.  Naturally, I have tons of wipes and NO MORE PULLUPS in the diaper bag (ARRGGG) and besides being uncomfortable with the dirty diaper, he is jealous because of how much attention Colleen is getting, so he acts out against me.  I'm trying to focus on the doctor, not wanting to interrupt, so after the first time he hit me and I said "we don't hit", I ignored him.  I guess it was bothering Doc though, because he told Wes in no uncertain terms that he was NOT allowed to hit me in his office,  Wes reared his hand back to hit me again, Doc repeated himself in a firm yet kind voice (I have yet to master that technique) and Wes immediately stopped and stood in the corner.  I was embarrassed because I felt like I couldn't control my own kid and inadequate because he could control him so easily.

 

Before we went to the hospital for the x-ray, I stopped and picked up some diapers, changed Wes, and then got lunch.  He was a perfect angel during this interlude and I foolishly hoped that the unruly behavior (Spice shout out: I typed it "behaviour" at first!  LOL), was behind us.  You'd think I'd start to learn from experience, and yet, hope springs eternal.

 

So, we are at the hospital, all back in the x-ray room after Colleen's x-ray had been taken, the technician had gone around the back to look at it and make sure it was a good impression.  She wanted Colleen to stay in the gown and keep the lead apron on, in case she had to take another x-ray.  Coco was fidgety and cold, so I was trying to comfort her.  I set Wes down for a minute to hug her... and Wes pushed the emergency system shut down button.  Let's say that again: The. Emergency. System. Shut. Down. Button.  The entire x-ray system shut down, the machinery above the table, the table itself, the machinery pointed at the wall for standing x-rays, the computers that tell the x-ray machines what to do, EVERY BLEEPING THING MECHANICAL IN THE WHOLE ROOM.  It made this omnious "shutting down" noise and I sighed, picked Wes up, and went to go find the tech.  Turns out I didn't have to, as I poked my head around the back to find her, she came running, almost yelling "what happened???".  I explained and it was plain to see that she was NOT a happy camper.  She couldn't get it back on, she didn't know how to override the emergency shut down, or how to reset it.  Several times I heard her mutter under her breath about how she couldn't believe the whole system was down.  Anyways, she ended up going get another guy, who did eventually figure it out.  Cue the feelings of embarassement and inadequacy.  And OOOOOHHHHH was I mad at Wes.

 

He had this attitude like "I don't know why you all are getting so worked up, it was just a button for heaven's sake..."  I couldn't even get him to apologize for what he did.  And trust me, this little guy is smart as a whip.  He KNOWS he did something he shouldn't have.  I just don't think he cares.  I couldn't get out of that hospital fast enough.

 

*sigh* 

 

Hugs, Jen

 

PS, I'll keep you all posted on Colleen.  I'm pretty sure she is fine, but I'll relax when I hear that the x-ray came back normal.