In Constant Motion

I feel lately like our lives are in constant motion with no time for rest. We returned from NY just in time for my daughter to attend tennis camp for a week and then start school. She is attending a new school this year so there are all new routines to learn and new friends to make. It is lots of fun but also a lot of effort. I have been to more meetings in the last few months than I have probably been to since I worked. My husband and I both feel that it is important to be involved at her school and to try and develop relationships with some of the parents of her classmates and truthfully, I enjoy it - except for the meetings. So, that transition from summer to new school is taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. I am carpooling this year with one of my neighbors and that is wonderful. She likes to leave a bit earlier than I think is necessary but I can deal with that because the payoff is so great! I drive every other week in the morning and then we both pick up each day because our girls get done at different times. The car line in the afternoon is seriously ridiculous though. She is dismissed at 3:15 but I have arrived as early as 2:30 and there is always a line several cars deep. Forget about arriving at 3:15 beacuse the line wraps all the way through the parking lot and onto the very busy street. Trying to use the time productively but ultimately the waiting just feels like a waste of time.

Our house has been in the process of being painted since the week that school started (Aug.20th). We hired painters recommended by my brother and to say that it was a colossal mistake is an understatement. It was clear by the end of the second day that they were not really doing a great job and by the end of the third day (which by their standards began at 9am and ended at 1:30 with an hour break for lunch) they had ruined the shoemolding on our baseboard which ultimately all had to be replaced by my husband and had slopped paint all over my hardwood floors, baseboards, etc. Do you think they offered to pay for it or even offered an apology - ummm no! So it was clear that we could not have them do any more work in our house for fear that they would destroy the entire thing by the time they actually finished. They did not take being fired very well. Of course we had given them half of our money up front and so now we are trying to decide if it is worth the hassle to take them to court to recoup the loss. Since we fired them, I have been trying to do some of the painting myself. I have painted a bathroom, two vanities and some of the baseboard but I just can't really do any more. So, our new painter is starting tomorrow and I am very hopeful that this experience will be more positive. Unfortunatley our house has been just a mess for a month now and that is just stressful for us. Add to that a brother that has been completely unsupportive and my mother who as usual makes excuses for said brother and you get me who at this point is just so over them both!

To add to the stress, my daughter has been battling strep for over two weeks now. She came home at the end of the first full week with a fever and I promptly took her to the night hours at our pediatrician. The strep test came back positive and after a few doses she seemed back to normal. She finished the antibitic a week ago and by Friday night she again had a fever. I took her to pediatric after hours on Saturday and they tested for flu (negative) and then decided it must be antibiotic resistent strep although they were unable to test for it as she had just finished up the other antibiotic. I'm just not sure that is the right diagnosis. She has a loose front tooth that has turned gray over the past week and by Sunday was red and swollen so we headed to the dentist yesterday to see if it was absessed. Dentist thinks not but said the antibiotic could have cleared up an infection if there was one. They left the tooth and told her to keep wiggling it and to come back if it doesn't eventually fall out. She just doesn't seem right to me though and I am more than a bit concerned. She has sunken eyes, she's pale - her one eye almost looks like she has a black eye on the lid part. She doesn't have a fever though and although her appetite has not really returned, she does seem to have energy. So, for now I wait and I worry. She has such tremendous anxiety about doctors that I do not want to subject her to anything that may be unnecessary but in the back of my mind I am worried about the low white cell count she had a year ago. I know instead of worrying I should just be praying but sometimes when it comes to your children it is hard to let go of the worry!

So that is the story of the crazy hamster treadmill I find myself on these days. I am also trying to plan a trip to NYC in October for a friend's wedding, a tag along on a business trip with my husband to San Francisco in November and another trip to NY state to visit my mother for Thanksgiving with maybe a side trip to Boston. Add to that the changes my husband and I have been making to our diet over the last couple months (he has lost 40 pounds since July and I have lost 20 since August) and I just feel like I am in constant motion with more and more to do on the never ending to do list.