School Fundraiser

Our school playground equipment is is SAD shape. I've written about it before. The monkey bars collapsed this summer and still haven't been replaced. And that is just one of the things that need fixed. I saw caution tape on one piece of equipment on the 1st grader playground a few weeks ago. The PTO has raised enough money over the last few years to start replacing some of the equipment this year. It was going to happen last year, but the district was unable to match funds, as anticipated, due to budget cutbacks. This fundraiser is the one that should earn us enough money to have installation begin. I missed the PTO meeting last week, but I heard someone say that they hope to start installing equipment on Thanksgiving break. I hope that is true.

In any case, the boys are peddling crap. I mean the kids are selling some great items, some of which I'm sure you can't live without. Please do not feel like you must buy something. But if you see something you like, you might as well support our school!!

It strikes me how different the world is from when I was the age my kids are now. I don't remember fundraising much when I was a kid. I do remember the MS Read-a-thon though. I remember getting pledges from neighbors I didn't know, by going door to door. (My mom might disagree with that, but it was a childhood memory. I keep finding out I don't remember it the same way my mother does). I also remember going door to door in our neighbor hood when I was in high school, selling candy for band fundraisers. There is no way I'd allow my kids to go door to door today. And here I am helping them sell crap over the internet. What a change....

UPDATE:  Ordering is over.  Thanks to those who did!

Thanks. (I HATE fundraisers!)

Nails too?

The winter before last winter was a BIG one here. We had a record amount of snow. Aaron and I closely watched the snow level on the roof and even made a pencil mark on one beam in the front, just to be sure the snow load wasn't so heavy that the roof would collapse. We were getting ready to go up and shovel (actually, Aa was planning on hauling the snow blower up there, shovelling sucks). We never had to go up there, thank goodness.

The roof on the back porch had a slight slope. It wasn't flat by any stretch of the imagination, but it isn't so sloped that the shingles won't stop a ball from rolling off it. Just ask the kids who have lost several balls up there (among other flying toys). There is also a hole in the roof on the back porch. It was clearly put there by some previous home owner, for some reason that I'm still unsure about, though we are guessing it was a failed attempt of a makeshift chimney for the bbq. I say "failed attempt" because the smoke still funnels up the roof and into the house to set off the smoke alarm. They did put a piece of wood over top of the hole so that you could block the rain from coming straight down onto your head. Instead it simply flows off the shingles in sheets in a volume greater than the hole would allow all by itself. Brilliant.

The melting snow on the gently sloped roof rotted some of the boards. We have two choices. We either need to re-roof the entire house (which needs to be done. The shingles are the original cedar shakes that were put on the house when it was built when I was in 1st or 2nd grade), or we need to tear down the back porch. The decision was made to tear down the back porch. That has to be easier and cheaper than re-reoofing the whole house.

So I got up on the roof this spring and starting taking off shingles. Then we took down half the porch. I borrowed a dump truck (in real life! I have friends with a dump truck!!) and the guys took the boards to the dump. We decided to do this in stages as Aa works on the weekends and we wanted to be able to use the "patio" a little when he was around. It made sense at the time. Now, I have half a porch, with no roof, and a big dirt spot.

Another weekend we took down the rest of the porch and piled that wood next to the house. Some of it we burned in the fire pit when we have friends over to drink wine. :) Then we just had one big dirt spot with a small concrete slab, that was originally poured when the house was built.

Our friends with the dump truck also own a landscaping business (hense the reason to own a dump truck). They got tired of our dirt spot (and also not being able to make fun of the sunroof on the porch anymore) and offered to help us fix up the patio. A lot of work has gone into it now and it is almost done. I'll post pictures when its completed.

During all of that destruction, Aaron and I were very very very careful to pick up nails and screws and other sharp and pointy objects that a kid might step on while playing the back yard. We even gave the kids a nickel for each nail they found after we scoured the area believing we had the majority of them. (I did pay out about $1.50). When the guys were laying the pavers down one piece of trim from the house had to be removed. A person who works for the landscaper, simply tossed the trim in the yard during the day, nails and all.... Guess what happened?

Pete found it with his foot. Less than 1 week after he broke his arm we were back in Urgent care for a tetanus shot. I called ahead. I talked to the triage nurse about when Pete's last tetanus was and whether we should go or not. It had been long enough that it was a go, but it was going to be a quick trip, because according to her there was no one at the urgent care, it had been very slow all day. The waiting room was PACKED when we got there. So we sat in the waiting room of the urgent care where a zillion sick little kids were coughing and sneezing and spreading their kid cooties all over. Once we finally got into the exam room the doctor saw us in a hurry though. She looked at his foot and scrubbed it with alcohol, which made Pete giggle rather than scream, prompting her to put him on antibiotics, because the hole was closed up already and the nail had gone through his stinky shoe into his foot, so who knows what kinds of grubby germs are in there. But the tetanus shot at the urgent care cost $150 and if you get it from your doctor it is FREE. So with little encouragement we decided to get the shot at PanHandle Health the next day.

Meanwhile, we have to go to the pharmacy to get his script filled. Walmart is the pharmacy in town that is still open at that hour, so that is where she called it into. We got there just as she phoned it in. The tech checked us in and told us it will be 30 minutes. We decided to do a little bit of our shopping and when we were done the medicine would be ready. It should only be as hard as counting out a few pills, I told Pete. It took us longer to shop that we thought it would because we found some really cute Halloween t-shirts to send to Germany and Pete and I had to decide which ones we liked the most. So 45 minutes later we had our shopping done and we were checked out. They still hadn't filled the prescription. 15 minutes later she called us up "Thompson.... Thompson... Hello Thompson". I said "Salzer?" "Oh, your not Thompson? It'll be about 15 minutes".

At this point Pete said "I think it must be more complicated than just counting pills, Mom". One hour and 15 minutes after we get there the pharmacist hands over a bottle of antibiotic in suspension. Suspension!!?? This kid is almost 10 years old!! I don't even give him children's chewables anymore, he would rather swallow a pill than chew one. He hasn't had suspension since he was 2! The pharmacist was literally shaking in his shoes by the time he gave it to me! We took the stupid bottle of liquid antibiotics home because I didn't want to wait another hour plus to fix it. Pete says it tastes nasty and next time he is going to ASK for pills he can swallow.

We did have to go get his tetanus shot the next day. He ended up getting several other boosters at the same time. He'd had to think about getting a shot for a whole day and was quite nervous when we got there. He looked at the nurse like she was crazy when she asked him his opinion on getting even more shots. But he barely even fliched when the time came. Two holes in each arm. He said that they didn't hurt at all compared to stepping on a nail.

And now I'm battling a sore throat, runny nose and headaches... I'm SURE it is from spending time in the Urgent Care waiting room... Pete's on antibiotics, so he should stay fairly healthy now. Lets hope we are done visiting there for a while.

Broken Bones

I drop my boys off at GAP (before and after school program) at about 6:30 in the morning. That way I can be at work at about 7:00 and I can come home early and actually spend some time with the kids after homework, practice, showers, and before bedtime.

At 8:15 (approximately 1 entire hour after i got to work) I get a call from the school. All the secretary knew was that he was on a bar on the play ground and had fallen. His arm hurt and he thought he was going to throw up. That's not a good sign. When she said he was going to vomit I knew that he had broken a bone. I just knew.

Aaron picked him up from the school (school hadn't even started yet) and took him to the Urgent Care, and I joined them. X-rays show a buckle fracture on his right radius. When the doctor left the room Pete told us that he was doing back flips off the chin up bars on the play ground. Usually when he does it (usually?) he had the bar right at his knees. But this time the bar was a little higher on his thigh. He thinks that is what caused him to fall off. He did fall off, landing on his right arm and his back. He said he laid there for a minute. His arm was hurting so he decided to tell a playground duty. But he only made it a few steps before "collapsing". He passed out! He didn't tell anyone else that part of the story.

The doctor called the Orthopedic surgeon. The fracture is uncomfortably close to his growth plate so an expert was needed to review the x-ray and cast the arm. Orthopedic guy was in surgery at the moment so we made an appointment for two days later. Meanwhile, the ER doc put a hard splint on Pete's arm and wrapped it in an ace bandage. His thumb was completely covered in plaster, you couldn't even see it! And the bandage pushed his fingers together. Pete insisted it wasn't uncomfortable and he put up with it for two days. It looked like his hand was the end of a tree limb, but he thought it looked more like a sling shot.

His appointment with the Orthopedist was today. We were told that he has a relatively minor fracture, and the location of it pretty much made it "reset" itself. Phew! He just has to keep it still. The doctor gave us several options to do that. In the end we all decided a hard, waterproof cast was the best bet for a nine year old. Really? That was a decision we had to talk through?

When we were lead into the casting room (and left there on our own for enough time to poke through all the cabinets and examine all the pictures of bones on the walls), Pete saw a weird looking contraption with little wire cages hanging from it. We joked about it being just like the Chinese finger trap that he brought home in his goody bag from a birthday party (and which happened to be in my purse for some reason). We had a good laugh about it. Turns out that is exactly what it is!! The doctor trapped 2 of Pete's fingers and let his arm hang there while he wrapped it up!

Pete chose orange. He knew before we got there what color he was going to ask for. Luckily they had hunter orange! He can pinch a pencil now that the splint is off. The last 2 days he wrote with his left hand. It was pretty frustrating for him. And he has a book report that will be due soon. I wasn't prepared to be patient enough to watch him one finger at a time type it out. :)

This is his second broken bone. His collar bone incident is one that still makes me see red (I think I wrote about it this summer). There is no one to be mad at (and no reason to be angry) on this one. I hope I have convinced Pete to stop doing back flips off the chin up bars though...

I did it!

I finished bootcamp! 4 weeks of getting up early and letting someone else tell me what to do. Then being sore the next few days.

I liked it.

Today's workout was a repeat of the very first one. We had to run 200 meters, then do 15, 12, 9 reps of squats, pushups, and pullups. My time on the first week was 12:16. This time it was 8:21. I shaved off almost 4 whole minutes! If that isn't progress I don't know what is!

I haven't decided to sign up for the classes yet... Crossfit isn't like a typical gym. You go when they have classes and it's pretty much like having a trainer. The only time they offer a class that I can attend in Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6:00am. My schedule is already crammed full of kids, work, and projects. I'm not sure I'm ready for adding gym to that yet. I think what I'll do is "practice" what I learned. I've got a buddy who is going to meet me in the morning a couple times a week. If I can't be consistent and show some progress, I'll join up and suffer through mornings.

Right now I'm just patting myself on the back for showing up every time, trying my hardest, and showing improvement. I did it! And they gave me a t-shirt for it.