Another good day

These flowers grow outside my house in several locations, but most prominently they grow right along the driveway. When in bloom this summer Cooper was obsessed with them. "Fleur?" he would request sounding quite French. He wasn't actually speaking French, as much as I would like to claim that he is a super genius. He would carry one to school most mornings. If I recall correctly Blackeyed Susans were my paternal grandmother's favorite flower. I am putting it on here to yet again remember that warmer, sunnier days are coming.

Today was another good day. Cooper is vastly improved. We filed our taxes and will be getting a nice refund that will make surviving the layoff a little bit easier if it goes on for any length of time.

It sounds like we can expect yet more snow this week. Excellent. Hopefully the water leak can get fixed sometime this week in spite of the weather. I have been having dreams most nights about water spurting out of my driveway, or sink holes developing in my driveway and swallowing our cars (that is thanks to my friend Diana who put that though into my head to begin with) or water gushing into my basement after running out of other places to go. I really don't want any of those things to happen. I need Mr. Contractor Dude to get jiggy and fix the problem. Which I am sure he will. I will be on the phone again Monday just to make sure.

In the meantime, my child kept me entertained this evening playing his guitar along with Bruce Springsteen on TV. Oh if only it was along with the Boss actually in my living room. THAT would be a really good day.

Fabulous Freaking Friday

It has been quite a week. I am now going to list the things I am very thankful for, in no particular order:

Cooper is down to using the nebulizer on an "as needed" basis.
Cooper went to school this morning!
My parents.
The Bob.
My job.
The people I work with.
My friends.
Meena, the mom in my neighborhood who knows about nebulizers, pneumonia and breathing problems in kids.
That at 5pm last night it was still light out.
These two pictures, taken by my father in warmer weather. A reminder that there are flowers in our future.
The 5 people who read this blog!

Thanks to those who have expressed their concern and care about us. We are feeling a bit beaten up, but in the scheme of things, we are OK.

Can you get a contact high from albuteral?

Today has been a better day. Cooper is feeling better, and even tolerates his nebulizer for the most part. This is a TERRIFIC photo of me with Cooper in his fish face mask - the maker of this product had the genius idea of putting a fish face on the mask to make it entertaining to wear. We were watching Finding Nemo while using it this morning. Because he has been doing this while sitting on my lap, and that fog leaks out through the holes in the mask, I am wondering if I am also getting a little albuteral action. The other picture was taken just after he finished. His appetite has been totally off since he got sick, but he has been willing to eat Nutragrain bars. Otherwise mommy would be even more freaked out than she has been.

In other news, we found a contractor who came out to discuss our water leak situation. The news in terms of cost was better than I had been anticipating. It will be around $2500 to fix. It could be a bit more if they have to dig further into the driveway, for the hot top patch. That is not an insignificant amount of money but it is better than the $7000 it cost a coworker of mine to do something similar at her house. But that involved a sewage line, not just a water line.

I had a moment last night. I was quite done with being in crisis mode. I feel better today, and we will get through all of this.

The universe is mocking me..UPDATED

Right. Let's review: The Bob gets laid off on Thursday. Yesterday we find out we have a water leak that may or may not be our problem to resolve (finding still unknown at this time, the city has not come back yet). And today, Cooper has pneumonia. He had been coughing and was running a fever beginning Sunday. Yesterday he stayed home and seemed somewhat improved, except he didn't want to eat or drink, since it made him cough. Last night he still had a mild fever so I said that it was likely he would need to see the doctor in the morning. The Bob gave me the hairy eyeball, like "Okaaaay, you paranoid mom".

Hmph. Bob took him to the doctor this morning and who is crazy now? Officially no one is allowed to question me when I say my child needs to go to the doctor. Last time he had strep. This time pneumonia.

He was a preemie, and they are predisposed to breathing related problems, but he had not, up to now, had any. He had not been on respiratory assistance when born, so we thought maybe he would defy the odds. Guess not. So now he has to use a nebulizer or however you spell that word. Oh goody. Because the thing 2 year olds are best at is sitting still with a mask on their face breathing in mist for 10 minutes.

At least we found out today. We didn't wait until he was more sick and not breathing, turning blue in the middle of a snow storm tomorrow. That would probably have earned him a trip to the emergency room.

What is next, dear universe? I will tell you what I would LIKE to have happen, just to get the good mojo out there: Bob is offered a great job with great pay that he could start next week. Even the week after. The city determines that the water leak is their problem to resolve. Cooper gets over his pneumonia and is fine, no lingering side effects. Nothing else bad happens. The sun rises, the snow melts, spring comes and the flowers bloom. Life goes on. And the Publishers Clearing House guys show up on my front porch with the balloons and big check to tell me that I am the winner of the $5000 a week for life contest. And then I live to be a happy, healthy, 105.

That pretty much covers it. Thanks.

Update: Oh like I expected anything else - yes, the water leak IS on our property. I am off to find a plumbing contractor.

And the beat goes on

I shall begin this post by saying what I seem to be saying a LOT lately: GAAAAAH.

Over the last week or so we have been experiencing low water pressure in our house and some sediment or dirt in the water coming out of the faucets. You see it the most in the tub, where there is no screen on the faucet. So I called the city. Nope, there haven't been any issues, they haven't been flushing the lines or anything like that. So they sent a dude to the house today, who, within about 30 seconds had diagnosed the problem as a water leak. The good news is it is outside the house, so it has not been effecting our water bill. And it is not flooding into the basement. However, it remains to be seen if the leak in on our property or outside of it, in the street. The latter is preferable, as that is the city's problem to fix. If it is on our property, it our problem to fix. Hence the GAAAAAH.

Our driveway is barely longer than a car length, so if it has to be dug up, it isn't a long one. That is what they would have to dig up too. The shut off valve is right at the end of the driveway, smack in the middle of it. Which is good because if it were in the lawn it would be under three feet of solid rock hard snow and ice.

I asked how urgent a problem this would be to fix. Since it is 22 degrees right now, at 10:45am, and we are due to get another 12 inches of snow this week, it would be very very very difficult for anyone to dig up the driveway or the street right now. So we could probably put it off for awhile, but there is the issue of the dirt in my water. I am thinking a whole house water filtration system is cheaper than digging up my yard right now. Not to mention that then we would have to redo the driveway too. LIKE I HAVE THIS KIND OF MONEY.

The dude said that eventually the water would show up, somewhere. It is going into the ground, but if it is big enough eventually the water will work its way to the surface, somewhere. I respectfully request from the powers that be, God, Buddha, Allah, Poseidon, Thor, whomever is listening, that the water NOT surface in my basement or my neighbor's basement. Thank you.

To review, this house has required a sump pump to be installed to deal with flooding in another part of the the basement and then it almost burned down because of a power surge caused by the relay blowing up on the pole. We had to replace the wall behind the stove because water was getting in there. Which led to replacing the counter tops, which almost led to replacing the cupboards if it hadn't been for some ingenious work on the part of the installation guy. The pool pump died this summer.
And the pool filter needs to replaced this summer.

I am ready to win the lottery now.

It's not my good news, but good news none the less

So in an economy that stinks like a half empty milk bottle left under the back seat of a car in July, jobs are still being found. My dear brother who has been seeking employment in his chosen profession as a therapist for about a year, has found one! Way to go dude.

The fact he went down this path is funny to me, since I am the one who originally chose psychology as a major in college, and then determined that sitting listening to people complain and whine and not want any fuctional assistance in finding a solution or are really interested in changing their lives in any way was NOT my idea of a good career choice. I know that I could have gone in many directions with that degree that would not have entailed such painful experiences, but I found a different path that suits me a bit better. Now, if I could be the female Dr. Phil, THAT would be a good time. The first time I saw him on TV give someone some whatfor about their self destructive behavior and how they had the power to fix that if they wanted to, I was all like "YES!!! Why didn't I think of doing this?" Then he went and got all Oprahfied and now he is kind of a joke. My brother on the other hand went for the self directed undergrad degree, then a masters in script writing or something like that, and then FINALLY a degree in counseling.

I am VERY happy for you dude, and wish you the best with it. Oregon will be a healthier place now with you out there healing everyone.

Not the change we were hoping for...

Two days into the new presidency, the one that is going to bring change, turn that economy around, the Bob gets laid off. GAH. He works, or WORKED, for a biggish technology company that just laid off 5000 or so people. He is just a number to them. But to us his number in vastly important!

At least he had an inkling. They announced they would be doing layoffs at the end of the month, right after the holidays. So rather than go to work today and be surprised, he went to work mostly resigned to this fate. But it still sucks. He is getting some severance, and has been actively looking for two weeks or so anyway, so I am hopeful he will find something sooner rather than later. Not just for the paycheck but the moral boost. It is no fun being laid off.

So anytime that change and improvement to the economy wants to happen, we will welcome it. And if anyone is looking for a talented software engineer/programmer/computer god who is also a really nice guy, I have one available.