The tornado warning has expired, you will all be pleased to learn. We’ve been having very strong storms this evening. The air-raid sirens started up when the kids were in the bathtub and Hayley said, “Hey! It’s not Tuesday morning!” She used to have a tot class at the community center on Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m. so she knows what air-raid sirens are.
It’s been so very long since I’ve managed to write. Even though nothing much happens in the summer, I get very lazy. Aunt Tiffy’s visit was a success and we were lucky enough to see her every day of her stay. My sister’s shower was also great and we got to see some of our family from the Quad Cities. After the shower, my Aunt Paula and Uncle Jeff invited the rest of our underage and male relatives who were not at the shower to come over for dinner. There were over sixty of us!
Aunt Tina’s wedding is rapidly approaching and I can see that we will be in trouble with Hayley when the time comes for her to marry. She ties my white dish cloths around her and says, “Mommy? Where’s my purse? I’m going to a sparkly wedding!” She tells me she’s going to marry her prince and she pretends to dance with this charming fellow in the living room. I guess some girls really do start dreaming about their weddings from the age of four. There’s been so much wedding talk lately that it was only a matter of time before Hayley started pretending about it. I tried my bridesmaid dress on for the kids and explained that Aunt Jackie and Aunt Tiffy would wear the same one as me. Hayley thought this sounded like great fun but Thomas couldn’t have cared less. Our kids really do follow gender stereotypes.
There’s more exciting news from Jonathan’s family…his brother’s wife is expecting their second child. I’ve actually known for a while since I was completely oblivious over Fourth of July weekend. I couldn’t understand why Christine didn’t want to share my special Raspberry Vodka Surprise! She seemed to enjoy it so much over Memorial Day! Duh. She had to spill the beans to me so I’d lay off and of course I had to tell Jonathan, but other than that I kept quiet. We just got the OK to tell the kids, so we’ve started talking about the baby in Aunt Christine’s tummy, and how it will get bigger and bigger and then the baby will be born. Thomas thinks it will be a boy and Hayley thinks it will be a girl. What a shocker. I’ve been showing them pictures of me when I was pregnant with them and Thomas seems to think that this whole idea is very interesting. I showed him a picture of me at my cousin’s wedding in Denver when I was about six months along and he said, “That’s pretty cool!” He smiled and seemed to understand. The only thing I’m terrified of is the kids asking anyone with a slightly protuberant tummy if they’ve got a baby in there. I’m sitting here just thinking about it and I’ve started sweating. Other than that, this will be fun for Thomas and Hayley to observe because they were both a little oblivious when Christine was pregnant with her first baby. They’ll be more involved and excited this time, I think.
We saw Thomas’ neurologist just over one week ago. The visit went really well, actually. Other than the kid’s behavior, which turned into WWE Smackdown as soon as the doctor entered the exam room, everything went great. I asked her to prescribe something for some of Thomas’ ADHD behaviors which she did. She prescribed Focalin and it is doing absolutely nothing for Thomas. I’m to call her in a couple weeks and let her know how it’s going, but I may end up calling her before that to let her know that this medicine and/or dosage is not working. I’m sure she’ll suggest we increase the dosage but only after the Anti-Depressant Police come and collect any extra Focalin we have and search the house for hidey-holes where we might be stockpiling other anti-depressants. The restrictions on how these medications are prescribed and dispensed is really staggering. For one thing, the doctor’s office will only prescribe one month’s worth of medicine at a time. We have to call every few weeks for a refill. Then, the pharmacist wanted my driver’s license number and told me that they will not fill a prescription for these meds that is more than seven days old. None of these things are terribly inconvenient and I know why these restrictions are in place but I’m used to picking up very innocent medications. We’ll see how things go once she increases the dose.
We’ve been swimming a lot lately, mostly because my uncle’s house is on the way to the mechanic. The car wouldn’t start on our way home from the pharmacy after Thomas’ doctor appointment and we didn’t really figure out why. After the car had been towed to the mechanic, he couldn’t get it not to start so there was no way for him to diagnose any trouble. Hmpf. We decided to put our money on (literally) the fuel pump since these particular pumps usually crap out after 70,000 miles and ours has been going for over 170,000. Borrowed time for sure. So I’ve been staying close to home. Getting the car towed from Uncle Tom’s would cost a lot less than getting it towed from the zoo. Plus, someone would likely be home at Uncle Tom’s to give us a lift. I’m a weenie, I know. My mom is a big freaker-outer about car troubles and I’ve inherited this from her. Every little noise, every little creak or crack or whiz or bang from under the hood and I’m gripping the arm rest and asking Jonathan if he heard it. He’s getting tired of my mania and he never hears these noises anyway. I figure it’s not as serious as hearing voices in my head.
