A good day

What a great day yesterday was! 

1. Just over a week ago, we got some bad news about my mom’s health–potentially dire news, in fact.  In a follow-up visit yesterday, her oncologist indicated that he did not agree with the initial findings and that his reading of the situation is potentially much more benign.  We’ll need an MRI and further tests to know for sure, but it was very heartening to hear that things might not be as bad as we were initially led to believe.
2. I took the day off from work so that I could do some Christmas shopping and get my hair cut.  It was so nice to have a few unscheduled hours to wander the shops, and I love the new stylist that I found.  I’ve been forever in search of someone who can help me manage this unruly head of hair, and Elizabeth did the best job of anyone thus far. 
3. I didn’t have the foresight to plan dinner last night, so we stopped in at our favorite local restaurant, Los Tios Grill.  Yum!
4. After the kids were in bed, I wrote out some Christmas cards while munching on chocolate bourbon balls that I made last weekend.  Unlike other cookies, these get better after sitting for a few days and are now quite delicious.  Yum again!

How far would you go to save your child’s life?

Neil Hutchison was devastated and desperate when doctors said there was nothing more they could do to help his 7 year old son, Sam.  Sam has a rare and deadly form of nerve cancer and doctors had exhausted their treatment options.  So Mr. Hutchison, a defense-contract recruiter who majored in chemical engineering in college, decided that they had nothing to lose and began to research own recipe of cancer cocktails to give his son.  And so far, it might be working–for now.

While many–including physicians–criticize Mr. Hutchison for experimenting on his son, don’t most parents understand the urge to save their child using any means possible?  To look at it another way, if, like Mr. Hutchison, you believed that there might be something within your power to help, but you decided not to try…how would you live with yourself?

“When your kids have run out of options, you have to think outside the box,” Mr. Hutchison says. “It’s terrifying, but it’s our only hope.”

We are a wasteful lot

I’ll fess up to having done a couple of these (though I’m not saying which ones). In What You Can Learn From a Dumpster Diver, CC Christiansen offers insight on what we are throwing away.

Yahoo! Power Mailer

As proof that I’m spending too much time online, Yahoo! has dubbed me one of its Power Users.

Power Users are the heaviest and most frequent users of Yahoo! Mail and were selected by Yahoo! to participate in this pilot program. These users spend an incredible amount of time using Yahoo! Mail, so the Power User program is our way of thanking them.

Not so sure this is a good thing…..

Honey–it worked!

EhiPassika posted yesterday about a study indicating that a spoonful of honey is more effective than over the counter medications for soothing coughs in children. Since the boy has been suffering with a nighttime cough for the past few days, I decided last night to give the folk remedy a try.

The boy was pleased with the taste of the elixir, and I’m happy to report that our very limited unscientific trial of one night was a success. The honey was just as effective as the children’s cough medicine that he’d been given on previous nights. In both cases, he received a “dose” of honey/medicine at bedtime and it suppressed the coughing for about 5 hours. Another dose when he woke up with a coughing fit at 1 am quieted the cough for the remainder of the night.

I’m not prepared to throw away the cough medicine just yet, but I’ll definitely offer honey first from now on.

My identities, past and present (an incomplete list)

Wife

Mother

Sister

Daughter

Student

Waitress

Program director

Tutor

Caseworker

Cashier

Cafeteria worker

Editor

President

Line leader

Ticket taker

Math champion

Spelling bee loser

Teacher’s aide

Listerv moderator

Niece

Granddaughter

Aunt

Girlfriend

Fiancée

Bookkeeper

Case Manager

Service coordinator

Health aide

Woman

Girl

Teenager

Babysitter

Friend

Best friend

Acquaintance

Colleague

Co-founder

Blogger

Patient

Patron

Customer

Passenger

Client

Taxpayer

Citizen

Rider

Writer

Knitter

Undergrad

Boss

Employee

Owner

Seller

Scholar

Speaker

Photographer

Blood donor

Volunteer

Crisis counselor

Trainer

Trainee

Partygoer

Hostess

Worker

Slacker

Liberal

Progressive

Conservative

Voter

Constituent

“Wheel of Fortune” reject

 

Getting into the Christmas spirit

We pulled the decorations and Christmas music out of storage over the weekend.  Am I the only one who thinks Brenda Lee is going to “have some [bleep]ing pie” in “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”?  Listen to it–you’ll never hear it as “pumpkin” again.

The boy and I had a great time decorating the tree.  Baby girl was of course immediately and repeatedly drawn to the glitter and lights of the tree.  We’ve erected a barracade of sorts to put in place when she is on the move to keep her from touching the tree.  It’s either that or she spends the entire month of December safely inside her baby jail pack-n-play fun zone.

I’m quite looking forward to Christmas this year.  Last year, having just given birth on Nov. 30, I was achy, seriously sleep-deprived, and too tethered to round-the-clock baby needs to really get into the whole cookie-baking, truffle-making, card-writing, Christmas-shopping routine that I usually enjoy.  Christmas was still lovely, and we had the best gift of all with our new baby girl, but I’m looking forward to doing more of the usual holiday stuff this year.