Tagged - Twice!

You know you are out of it when you get tagged for a Meme, not once, but twice. So, to redeem myself with those who have tagged me, I am combining two different meme's, one was a 4 meme, the other was a 7 meme, so here goes nothing:

Four jobs I have had:
1. Lactation consultant
2. High school math teacher
3. Human resources assistant
4. Legal assistant
(5 Manager of Grand Central Station ie my house with all the therapists, Doctors appointments)

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Mint chocolate chip Ice cream ( Baskin Robbins)
2. Chocolate
3. Steak
4. Mangos

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. Greys Anatomy
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Good Eats
4. Unwrapped

Four Places I'd rather be:
1. Hawaii
2. Florida
3. England
4. Venezuela ( Don't ask)

Seven Movies I love:
1. Being John Malkovich
2. Much Ado About Nothing
3. Meet Me in St Louis
4. Singing in the Rain
5. Die Hard ( all three)
6. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
7. Bill Engvall: Here's Your Sign

Seven Places I have Been on Vacation:
1. Florida
2. Delaware
3. Puerto Rico
4. St Louis
5. Connecticut
6. New York
7. Detriot

Seven Books I love:
1. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
2. Trading up by Candace Bushnell
3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
4. Selected Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson
5. The Odd Women by George Gissing
6. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway
7. In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck

Seven Things I Say
1. What.....
2. Benefit of the doubt
3. Whatever
4. Awesome
5. If I have to tell you one more time.....
6. Such is life....
7. Thank God
8. Can you say Antidisestablishmentarianism?

Seven things that attract me to people...
1. Compassion
2. Interests
3. Personality
4. Thoughfulness
5. Intelligance
6. Attitude
7. Sense of humor

Seven things I can't do:
1. sing
2. drive a stick shift
3. ski
4. tread water
5. eat raw meat or fish
6. pass up a good sale
7. Stay up late ( I need my Sleep)

I will not tag anyone, for I fear I am the last one in the planet to have not responded to being tagged yet. Have a great week everyone!

Old Friends, New Faces

Well, this week went a bit more smoothly, then last week. It was back to same old for the most part. Peanut was still under the weather the begining of the week, but is feeling much better now. In fact she had a great week in therapy. She attempted to walk down the steps...don't worry, the therapist was holding her hands so she wouldn't fall. She was not scared, or worried at all, in fact Peanut wanted to walk down vs sit on her bum to go down. Now if only she'd do it on her own...in due time! Peanut also has shown her understanding of up, down, on, off, under and in and out. We have been using Weebles, to have her hold them up (she says "BUP" Yay!) or put them down. She also puts them into contaioners and takes them out with verbal cuing only! Cool!
Today was Tube day for my Elle. we went into to have tubes put back into her ears, and she did great! What a trooper! She also was famous, because we ran into quite a few of Peanuts Hospital friends. The nurses and Np's and MD's who know us from her surgeries. It was nice for Elle to have that recognition...plus I made sure to tell everyone what a great big sissy she is and how she taught her a new game. Yes, Peanut has another new trick, she runs away in tag! YOu roll a ball or toy to her, she grabs it and turns, running ( ie butt scooting really fast) away from you. She stops and looks over her shoulder to make sure you are trying to catch her and then scoots off aagain! It is so cute! Elle was excited to tell all about this new trick. Elle was a little worried about the surgery, but we played Uno and chit chatted with the staff, and before you knew it the procedure was done. Elle asked when she was going to get her tubes in! She didn't realize they had done it already.
We had our favorite Anesthesiologist ( Dr GReenberg) He is so Awsome! Good guy, and great md. Glad it is over, as I did not sleep well last night. Even though I know the procedure is not a big deak, it is still my child going under anesthesia....
Here's hoping for a great weekend with my kiddos,

Week From Another Planet

I started my classes this week, and I thought things would be easy, at least as I started out. Well, the classes don't seem to be too hard (I have to work my butt off as I get back into the saddle again, but here's hoping for the best), although life at home just wasn't cooperating.
My first class was Monday night. I had a crazy day, as my oldest daughter woke up with an ear ache and the croup. So I let her stay home, but went about my daily routine of therapy, groceries and other mundane errands. The day was busy, but tolerable, until 3:15 pm. While sitting watching my son at speech therapy my phone rings. Apparently Elle was screaming and crying that her ear was really hurting. My Mom wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but Elle was really in pain, despite having had Tylenol a hour before. With no time to take her to the doctor that day, I made an appointment for the following day, but asked if they could prescribe something to tide us over. Knowing my daughter, she only does this when she ruptures her ear drum. When I got home and took a look myself, I was right. Unfortunately, even the doctors who I work with were unwilling to give us something. (darn malpractice issues) So having arrived home at 4:30 pm to make dinner, eat dinner and leave by 5 pm, I just threw my hands up, gave her a kiss and more Tylenol and went to school.
Adding insult to injury, I get to class and realize I switched the days of my classes in my Palm Pilot, and so I brought my Anatomy and Physiology books to my Biology class. So much for being organized!
The class was interesting and there were a few other moms like myself going back to school for various reasons. so I am not the only nut out there!
On to the rest of my week, Tuesday we saw ENT, who agreed with my observation that my daughter had ruptured her ear drum, and we scheduled surgery for next friday for yet ANOTHER set of tubes. The thing that kills me is that once I am a PA, techinicaly I could fill a script to tide her over....another reason to go into medicine.
Wednesday wasn't too bad, except that by the afternoon, I really though Peanut was starting to sound hoarse and was sleeping an aweful lot (sehe slept for 2 and a half hours, instewad of her usual hour). Thinking she was coming down with something, but unsure what, I kissed her, gave her a dose of Tylenol and headed out to class for the second time this week. De ja Vu?! Oh well. Class was fine, got home early and checked on the kids, Hubby did a great job! they were fed (ok, I fed them before I left) , Watered, (ok I did that too), in Pj's ( me again), in bed on time and sleeping when I got home ( Dad gets big BIG point for this, as Peanut is used to nursing to sleep, he got her down, no problems). KUDOS to Dad/hubby for his smooth transition into school mode.
Thursday was a nightmare! My Husband went to Detriot for the day, he drove both ways in the same day...crazy! While left home, I ran like crazy trying to make up time from the rest of the week with errands, studying and life. In the meantime Peanut had woken up that morning with a croupy cough...I mean a REAL croup cough, the kind that is tight sounding and raspy with wheezing in between. Horrible. I tried all day to get to the doctor, but was unable to get there. In the end I ended up in the ER with her that night, as she was really struggling to breathe. That was fun ( i am being facisous here (sp?)) I ran into all the doc's and nurses from last year when we were in with her pneumonia. The fact that they all remembered us was scary, its not like it is a small hospital, and they see so many kids. It was nice though, the recognition, as I was not treated like an idiot. They checked her lungs for pneumonia, which was clear (thank god!), and gave her a shot of decodron (steriod to help loosen her phraynx so she could breathe easier). Then sent us home telling us it would kick in in about 3 hours....5 hours later she finally stopped wheezing.
Oh, did I mention that I burnt my fingers at dinner time? Yeah, mommy had a brain freeze and did a really silly thing. I was boiling water to make pasta, and my flame kept going out. I couldn't figure out why, then I realized that there was water all over my stove top. Apparently someone dropped my pot and cracked it so when you put water in past a certian level, it leaks out. Never mind that, I move the pot over, turn off the flame, and proceed to remove the burner to dry the stove...WITHOUT POT HOLDERS! Did I mention the burner had been on? Yeah, I was not happy, immediatly thrust my hand into my freezer and well, we had leftovers for dinner. My kids heard a comotion in the kitchen, and Elle comes into the kitchen and asksm e why I have my hand in the freezer, innocence is such bliss. My boo-boos (three bug blisters were great entertainment for my kids, and a great demo for why we don't touch hot things, a "Hands on Demo" If you will. Then as we were deciding what to do about Peanut, my pediatrician called back, and told us to head in. So when I got there I had the residents look at my three fingers, the pads at the top of your fingers, well my thumb, pointer and tall man were all burnt. Good 2nd degree burns. Everyone said the same thing. ICE. Ironically when we went into the ER, everyone thought Peanut had hurt her arm, as I was holding an Ice pack on my boo-boo fingers. I ended up with 100 mg of tylenol, and a bunch of free ice packs. No charge...nice huh! At least I burnt my left hand, so I can still tyoe and write and take notes...the silver lining is ever present.
Here's hoping the rest of the term and three years go more smoothly then this first week....

CDC Report: Down Syndrome More Common

I don't know how many of you have heard about this, but I found it quite interesting:

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 5, 2005 ATLANTA

(AP) -- Down syndrome in the United States is more common thanpreviously thought, at one case for every 733 live births, according to anew government report containing what are regarded as the most reliableestimates yet on the prevalence of 18 types of birth defects. Previously, Down syndrome, a type of retardation caused by a geneticmutation, was estimated to occur in a range of one in every 800 live birthsto one in every 1,000.The report, released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention, also found that cleft lip occurs in about one in every 1,000births, and cleft palate in about one in every 1,500.The report was celebrated by advocacy groups that help families affected bybirth defects. They noted that the new numbers are based on statewide data,while previous estimates were derived from selected clinics and hospitals.''Until now, there's been a real dearth of good, reliable, nationalstatistics on Down syndrome,'' said Suzanne Armstrong, spokeswoman for theNational Down Syndrome Society.The risk of Down syndrome increases with the age of the mother, from anestimated 1 in 2,000 among 20-year-old women to 1 in 100 for women age 40. Many women are having babies later in life, which might explain the higherrate in the new study.But because the new statistics were not collected in the same way as theold, it is not clear whether Down syndrome has really increased, Armstrongand others said.From 1974 until the mid-1990s, the government tracked birth defects througha system that relied on hospital discharge reports. But not all hospitalswere represented, and researchers said it was possible that theparticipating hospitals attracted more or fewer problematic births than thenorm. In 1997, the government collected data from all birth hospitals,clinics and referral centers in certain parts of the country.The new report presents statewide data for Arkansas, Hawaii, Iowa,Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. It also has datafrom the metropolitan Atlanta area, the Central Valley in California and agroup southern Alabama counties. The statistics are for the years 1999 to2001.The 11 states account for about 22 percent of all live births in the UnitedStates each year and are a good representative sample, said Joann Petrini, astudy co-author and director of the March of Dimes' perinatal data center inWhite Plains, N.Y.The researchers included only 18 of the thousands of birth defects that havebeen identified by doctors and scientists. Missing are common birth defectssuch as clubfoot, hip dislocation and hypospadias, in which a boy's urinaryopening is on the underside of the penis instead of the tip. Spina bifidawas not included either, because health officials already have what theyconsider reliable estimates.

A New Planet

Just when you were beging to think I have fallen off the face of the Planet....wait a minute I have! I am looking at a whole new planet complete with new cycles and roles, yet I am feeling excited and a little nervous. I will be starting my prerequisites for the Physician Assistant program tomorrow, and have been very busy trying to start reading and get a hold of some information. I don't like going into appointments or classes unprepared. Having been out of school for six years I have to retrain my brain into reading and note taking and study methodology, etc. I read a study recently that said a woman who had given birth was actually smarter postpartum. Apparently the brain becomes more elastic and can better recall and understand information. I will let you know about that one, especially since I put the ice cream in the cabinet next to the bowls yesterday. Don't worry, I found it before it got too melty and refroze it. Hopefully there wont be too many ice crystals next time I serve it.
Over the next few weeks my posting may run a bit fewer and farther between, until I can figure out my schedule, AGAIN (therapies stay the same, we added a new nutritionist and have been so busy trying to get back into the swing of things after the holidays. Now with school, I'm going a little crazy). PLease bear with me while I make the adjustments and accomodations, I promise I will be back on the ball in no time.