I am back. I am tired. I am getting caught up with things so this is brief but I wanted to stop in and say I had a *wonderful* time in Chicago! More details to come!
Ah yes, Disney loves it's promos! I love them too. This one anyway. I just can't understand why there were so many people that hated Pirates 2. It broke records and was #1 so they are in the minority but still, who *are* these people? It's just supposed to be a fun movie and I for one think it was very fun! I can't wait for the third one! You may think it silly for a 40 year old woman to love the Pirates movies but hey, keeps me young!
I am *so* totally excited about my Chicago conference! One more day and I leave to go have a great time with friends and colleagues! I really need this and it couldn't come at a better time. Rachel had to go in and see and ENT doc to find out why she still wasn't feeling better. He saw that some of the infection was still there and put her on a double course of anti-biotics along with ear drops to wipe it out. It appears to be working. Catching up on school work will be another trick. She is not very motivated...I haven't been to many sites or written much here in the midst of it all which I apologize for but it can't be helped. Getting ready for the trip is keeping me busy but Jon will home with the girls (he took the time off a few months ago) so no worries there. There are going to be some amazing presenters at the conference so we should have plenty to bring back to the rest of the staff that could not attend because their building wouldn't fund it (grrr...). For now, I just can't wait for my head to hit the pillow! Bon soir!It is a good thing I am a strong person. I have really needed it with Rachel. She is what you call "high maintenance" in every sense of the word! Her hearing still hasn't really improved and so we are looking into a program called "homebound" to get her to graduation. We tried to send her to school Friday and her first teacher of the day sent her to the counselor when she found out she had trouble hearing. Jon didn't have to be on call until the afternoon so he went and picked her up. Apparently there is some kind of a program where a tutor comes into your home to work with your kid on finishing up classes. *Sigh* Could this get any more complicated? All in her Senior year no less!
On the bright side of things she is looking and feeling better. Her 18th birthday is next month so I am thinking on ways to make that special for her! Ideas? The weather the last few days had been beautiful! I can't believe we were being buried in snow this time last week! With temps in the 40's and 50's and sunny skies that snow is almost gone! The birds are beginning to sing and the potholes are a plenty! That's when you know its really Spring!Today we may hit 50 and I am kind of bummed that most of my day will be sitting at the piano giving lessons for three hours. Still, I feel really good about how this has contributed to our financial "catch-up". Tuesday I will be paying off our Target card (horrible horrible card to get. Don't do it!) and then we begin to chip at Citibank. When Citibank is gone we will have only one card left and that is the only card we are going to keep once it is paid. Our tax refund should nicely cover what's left on that. By May we should be on to my student loans. I really can't wait to get rid of those! They have hung over me for so many years and it's really kind of depressing. Jon will finish his Residency in two more years so his loans will be due. We are trying to clear away all debt but the mortgage before that happens because he has quite a few. All in all he ended up with much less debt than most medical students so we can't argue.My car is paid for which helps tremendously but it has reached the 150,000 mile mark and is going downhill fast! I am praying it will at least make it through the Spring if not the Summer.It would really set us back to have to finance that now.The best part will be paying family back. We owe both my mom and Jon's mom money. I'd feel better clearing that off before the cards but I know that the interest on those cards is killing us so they have to be first. I am hoping I can find a way to still send my mom a little each month. It sounds as if she could use it now. The other good news is that my Chicago conference is only a few weeks away now! I am so exicited to get out of here I can barely contain myself! With no vacation last year, I am hell-on-wheels to leave this town this year! I am also looking forward to our family going to Chicago over Spring Break. If you can recommend any good downtown hotels let me know. We will be staying at the Park Hilton for the convention so I'll get to look that over and see if I like it. I am hoping to find one with a pool for Rhianna. That will probably be the highlight of the trip for her! High ho, high ho it's off to work I go!A common word in our house these days.Rachel is finally looking better. Last night was rough for her but this morning she looked much better. I stayed home just in case a visit to the ER was in order and also just to give her my support. She slept until noon or so and looked so much better for it.
It seems the anitbiotic is doing its job but even after the infection clears up there is still the small matter of her deafness. She can barely hear and there is no telling how long that will last. We watched Y&R today with the mute on so we could read the close caption. Let me tell you, a teenager who cannot watch TV, talk on the phone or listen to music is not a happy teenager! Still, I think she was happy I stayed home with her. I washed up all of her sheets on the sanitary cycle, washed her hair in the sink for her (it has been almost 4 days since she had washed it) and watched/read Y&R with her.She is very worried about her job. She loves working at the theater and had to go and tell her boss today the situation. She cried when she saw later that he didn't have her on the schedule. Jon called him and he said he is going to try to find something for her but he wasn't sure what so he didn't have her written on the schedule yet.And then there is school... *sigh* I don't think she will be quite ready to return tomorrow. She still gets dizzy if she sits up for too long. Friday she will have to at least make an appearance if only to gather her homework. How will she sit through her classes not being able to understand what's being said? We may have to learn sign language which would just kill me. Or the irony! Jon's ex-wife was big into sign language and my ex and I used to amuse ourselves with that so that's payback big time for me. I love learning new languages but I really wouldn't learn sign language unless it was necessary. I just can't block out the stereotype a la Napoleon Dynamite. Another irony is that my ex went on to take a class in sign language as part of his new persona. Apparently all of the things he thought were really stupid like golf, sign language and vegans he has now suddenly embraced! I hope I haven't done that. Flip flopped on my beliefs that is. Changing is one thing but to go through life with no values system whatsoever seems empty. But I digress...Time to go check on Rachel. She ate more today than she has over the past three days and that's not saying much. I am going to tuck her in and finish my own stuff so I can get to bed. Thank God Jon is home tonight!Jon couldn't see into Rachel's ear the other night because she had a ton of wax in the way that she wouldn't let him clean out. The other ear looked red and he called in an antibiotic anyway. I stayed home with her Monday and nursed her along. Today her other ear burst and she is very miserable. I went to school today but it looks like I'll be back home tomorrow. She now can hardly hear, she is in pain and is running a slight temperature even with meds. She says her face and neck hurts and that it hurts to swallow. I am sure it is just all of her lymph nodes on hight alert but it still worries me. She won't drink the amount of water that she should be so I am sure she is dehydrated on top of it all. She is *so* non-complient!
I am feeling very frustrating because she is to the point where she just sits and crys and there really is nothing I can do for her. Jon is moonlighting so he isn't here and won't be until tomorrow night. This really sucks...I don't even want to think about the fact that she will have missed three days of school. What about not being able to hear? Even when she returns she won't be able to understand a damn word anyone says! I just really hope she doesn't end up in the hospital. I think the antibiotic Jon gave her isn't doing it's job and that it will need to be switched. *sigh* When does life become normal? I know it used to be because I have a vague memory of it.