Saturday, September 26, 2009

Ok so it's been a while.

I apparently suck at this!

It was a fun summer.


Jack celebrated his 4th birthday at the park with a small party. He had a great day and everyone enjoyed the Spongebob cake!

Jack LOVED his new bike!

In July we went up to Kentucky for a family reunion. Josh got the time off at school to come with us. As we were getting off the exit to Gainesville the check engine light went on in the Jeep and the thermostat went into the red. I freaked! We were only 90 minutes into the trip and we've got a check engine light! We pulled over into a gas station and let it cool off. All the fluid levels were good and once it was sufficiently cooled we went and picked up Josh and got ourselves to a Jeep dealership. It turned out that our radiator (original to the Jeep and therefore 11 years old) was shot. We ended up replacing it, the hoses and thermostat. We told them to take their time we'd pick it up on the way home and rented a car. After our 3 hour detour we were back on the road in time to hit Atlanta at rush hour! In a thunderstorm! We finally got to our hotel (Convention Center Marriott, Chattanooga) around 9 so we didn't have any time to play in the pool or anything. That was kind of a bummer but Jack was happy that the hotel had a glass elevator and an escalator. He still talks about the "Red Hotel". The next day was uneventful and we rolled into Louisville around 2 o'clock. We had a great time at the reunion and at the Louisville Zoo the next day. We even got to meet the Miller family of Parr8's Family fame. A good time was had by all!
Griffin, Emmy and Jack sharing a wagon ride.

The boys at the pool.

The hotel in L-ville was neat. It had 2 pools which the kids loved. It was also central to just about everything we wanted to do. On the way home we stayed in Chattanooga again but this time we were at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel. What a fun place! We got to ride on a trolley and eat dinner in a real train car! There was also a model train museum we went to. Jack loved climbing on the old locomotive.

Jack doing his bell ringer duty.

Jack "driving" the train.

Ed and Rocio came down with Brando and Ben in August. We had a good time going to the beach with them and Jack and Ben got in some cousin time. Jack enjoyed having someone his age to play with. As always, their visit was far too short!
Brando and Rocio enjoying the day.

Jack and Ben and their private beach.


With all that going on the rest of the summer was uneventful by comparison! Jack started Pre-K and immediately got sick and missed a week of school! The poor guy had a nasty bug that he passed on to Daddy. He's a good sharer.
Jack on his first day of Pre-K.


Yesterday he fell off the slide at school. He wasn't using his left arm at all so we took him to urgent care. His x-rays were clear and they gave him a sling so he could rest his arm a bit. If he's still not able to use the arm by Monday we'll take him to his pediatrician's office to get him looked at. At the rate I'm going I'll update this blog on his arm some time in March!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Our super-duper camping adventure!

Rain and all!

First a few observations:

We saw people in massive RVs "camping" in the same place we were. The folks next to us had a small rapid set pool, golf carts, plasma tv, Dale JR flag a'flyin' and a VERY loud stereo. Seriously, if you're bringing your living room with you it ain't camping, people. Golf carts? It would kill you to walk? Jack had no problem walking the park and he's only 3! Lazy jerks. These same jerks had roughly 600 small yappy dogs that they didn't have on leashes. We got to listen to them yell at the dogs to come back 100 times a day. Next time we'll be camping in the primitive sites. No RVs allowed. No water, no electricity. We can use the campground showers and fill our water containers as we need to but it'll be more peaceful. I'm thinking of going back soon if we can get our tent issues resolved. (see below)

I got a kick out of the people with the wooden signs with their name on them. Some even had a PVC flag pole with the Stars and Stripes flying for the holiday weekend.

Not many things suck more than fire ants:

We had 2 nests in our site. We set about pouring boiling water down the nests and that seemed to keep them in their place. We managed to keep Jack away but John and I wound up with a few bites on our ankles. Probably payback for the boiling water we kept pouring down the nest.

Beth's mad driving skillz:

My previously unscathed jeep got a little scathed this weekend. I backed into a tree and put a little ding in the back bumper and somehow managed to wedge the post making our camp website (Thank you, Jack) number between the tire and the front bumper. So much for creative parking!

101 (Well, 2) uses for a coffee press:

In trying to get Jack to take a nap we just decided to leave him in the tent. This was a bad idea. He got into John's shampoo bottle and smeared it all over his head. We used the coffee press like a pitcher and got the shampoo rinsed out for the most part.

The trip:

The first day was pretty much dedicated to getting settled. We got to the park around 1, got checked in and set up our stuff. The goal was to get it set up before the rain started. We made it. We did the tent first then our screen house over the picnic table. All the comforts of home (minus the plasma tv, pool, 600 yappy dogs, golf carts and loud stereo.) Anyway, we got the camp set up and were putting the finishing touches on things just as it started to sprinkle. Once we were done we decided since it wasn't raining all that hard we'd go for a walk. Jack was delighted with the idea of walking in the rain. We went up to the little restaurant/camp store and got some ice cream and went home again. After dinner we took a drive around the park to scout out the different hiking trails. At one point we saw a wild hog run across the road and into the bushes on the other side. We figured out where we wanted to hike first and went back to camp, made popcorn, had showers and set about the task of trying to get Jack to go to sleep. He was pretty wound up and it wasn't easy. John ended up riding him around a little in the car to get him to relax. While John was riding Jack around I could swear I could hear light sabers every few minutes. I thought maybe it was the ceiling fans in the bathrooms or maybe some kids playing but it was getting late and it was dark and otherwise pretty quiet. I had to use the bathroom so I got up and as I was walking to the bathrooms I saw that some people further down had one of the Star Wars movies playing on the side of their screen house! It was like a drive in movie over there. I was relieved to know I wasn't hearing things.

The next morning we were up early compared to our neighbors and were dressed and on the hiking trails before a lot of folks were even awake. We hiked 2 of the trails. The first was the Cypress Swamp trail.
It's a board walk that goes through a swamp. There's lots of cypress trees and if you're lucky you'll see an alligator. We didn't see one though. We did see some really cool spider webs and a woodpecker. The whole boardwalk was very shady and it was a cool place on a warm day. Later on the boardwalk got pretty narrow. We saw some pretty neat cypress knees too.


The other trail was the Ancient Hammock trail. This trail had some of the biggest oak trees I've ever seen. By now Jack was getting pretty tired and John wound up carrying him much of the way. We same some giant grasshoppers, loads of lizards and places where the wild hogs had been rooting in the dirt. We also saw tracks.






After the hike we had a futile attempt at getting Jack to go to sleep. We got in the car and went into town (Sebring, Florida) to get some more ice and some corn for dinner. We drove all the way around the big lake and he was awake the whole time. We came back to camp and had lunch, went to the playground for a little while and still he wouldn't lay down so we decided to rent a couple bikes. We knew he'd konk out if we put him in a bicycle child carrier. We were right. John's bike had some serious drive train issues and kept slipping so we only rode around for a half hour or so but Jack slept most of the way. With Jack re-energized, we went back to the little restaurant/store and had another ice cream. While we were inside it started to rain a little bit. Then it started to rain harder. After we finished our ice cream we went across to the little CCC museum they have and walked around it for a while until the rain let up a bit. It was sprinkling when we headed back to camp and a downpour by the time we got there. We were all soaked to the skin and decided to take refuge in the tent. I went to the jeep and got our dry towels and some dry clothes for everyone. Then we saw that the rainfly was leaking. Our bed was getting dripped on and everything in the tent was getting pretty wet. We figured we could tough it out if it only rained for an hour or so and when it stopped after about an hour we went out to start supper. Just and John got the fire going and we started cooking hot dogs over it the rain started again. We had a short meeting and decided to pack it up and clean everything up at home. We had the car packed in an hour and were on our way at about 8:30. We got home last night around 10 and got some showers and hit the sack. Everything is covered in sand and a mulchy mix of dead organic matter, pine needles and bark. It was a great trip. I wish we could have had another day to check out the trails but we'll go back.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Funky Flutime Pharmacy Phun!

What a day. Q-Tips freak out over the flu enough but add all the preposterous pandemic paranoia and it heightens to a whole new level. I must have explained that Theraflu and Tamaflu are two very different things. We're out of useless face masks, we're out of hand sanitizer gel, no you can't get Tamaflu or Relenza unless you're really sick. Top that off with it being the first Monday of the month and us having an intern in today that had never set foot behind a pharmacy counter and things were going to be freaky anyway. Then we got the call. A girl I work with wanted to know if she should stay home if her mother has a suspected case of swine flu. Her mom is waiting on test results from the CDC. Sooooo...she wasn't allowed come to work because she might be about to get sick herself.


I'm pretty tired.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

We're taking Jack to dinner tomorrow night in Spain.

A few months ago, when John was driving Jack home after school, Jack started asking him to take him to Spain. John didn't know what Jack was talking about and tried to get more information from the kid but they both got frustrated. Then one day we were picking up some takeout Chinese food at the place in town and Jack got all excited that Daddy finally brought him to...Spain! I have no idea why so don't ask me to explain it. We're getting dinner there tomorrow night, Jack loves Spanish food.

Josh is doing well at school and should be finished with the high school portion of the curriculum in a couple months. We sent him a cell phone and he's busy running up our mobile bill as I type this. He called today and asked for me to send him some running shoes. He's trying out for the track team. He was also made a Corporal in the Pre Law Enforcement program. He's going to go on a ride along with the Sheriff's department soon. It's great that things are looking up for him.

We're all looking forward to our camping trip at Highlands Hammock State Park next month. Stay tuned for pictures of that.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Ten Reasons Why Jack Can't Go to Sleep

1. I have to go potty.
2. I'm still hungry.
3. I want a drink of water.
4. There's a monster in the closet.
5. I wanna rock.
6. I want to go to Spain. (Which is what he calls the local Chinese take out place.)
7. My bed is itchy.
8. I want Old DD. (The blanket we keep at preschool for him.)
9. Tiger is noisy. (Tiger is his stuffed lion.)
10. I'm too busy right now.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Valentine's Day



Ahhh, Valentine's Day. The one day of the year when the shallow amongst us clamber for more bling and hold our loved ones close to our wallets. Ahhh, it just smacks of love and devotion. Sigh...

Ok, so I'm not exactly a hopeless romantic. I don't think I need a special day to make John feel special. With a little help from the ladies he works with this year's Valentine's Day gift was one to remember!

John's coworker Pattie sent me an IM last week wanting an idea to prank him. He was on vacation last week so they had time to put everything together without him being around and she wanted to take advantage of it. I made a few suggestions that she liked and then suggested they put a big sign on it that said "Happy Valentine's Day Love, Beth" on it. Pattie worked all week at getting the materials together and they wrapped his desk in cellophane and jello'd his coffee cup. They threw a few Valentine's decorations here and there and viola!

John's Valentine's Day gift:
The little cups all over the place are full of those little heart shaped candies. They did a great job. I probably would have done more, I have a propensity toward excess, but they did a good job considering he's going to get even with them some time.

He was pretty surprised. I'm sure he thought last year's singing telegram was a one time thing. Maybe we have the makings of a tradition here. He'll be on guard next year though.

...should have wrapped up his chair too.

There's always room for jello!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Josh found out his Job Corps date today!

We hadn't heard anything in the month or so since he had his interview up in Tampa so we suggested he call his counselor yesterday. I guess that call woke everyone up because he got a call from the Job Corps center in Gainesville and he leaves on February 24th!

He talked to the counselor for a while today. He found out that while he has a career path in mind he will shadow a student in 3 different career paths before he makes his decision. My money is still on Law Enforcement. It's all the kid has talked about since he was 3 years old.

Anyway, the morning of Febuary 24th we'll pack up Josh's stuff and drive the 140 miles to Gainesville and drop him off. I'm interested to see the campus. I don't think we'll be able to stay long but that's okay. He's looking forward to taking his first steps away from home and we've very proud of him for making this decision and doing all the hard work he had to do to get into the program. Way to go Josh!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I'm sort of famous!

Barely. Earlier on I had mentioned using Field Notes to jot down stuff. Well, I emailed them and suggested they start a Face Book page so I could become a fan. They did and I was their first fan so the nifty folks at Field Notes put my name in lights.

Friday, January 30, 2009

We're all out. You can get more in France...

It seems that the really silly stuff always happens when I have only a few minutes left on my shift. Tonight was no exception when a man came in with a prescription for his mother. The drug store across the street didn't have what he needed in stock and he wanted us to fill it. On a Friday afternoon if you don't find it at your drug store you're not going to see it until some time Monday and he was desperate to find his mom's meds. I looked on the shelf and not only did we not have what he needed, there wasn't even a place on the shelf for it. I broke the bad news to him and offered to call our store in Apollo Beach to see if they have it. While I was on hold with them he told me he'd go all the way to Brandon - which is 20 miles away - if he had to. The tech in Apollo Beach said they didn't have it but she knew they had it in the Parrish store because she sent someone there a few hours ago. I got on the horn with Parrish and sure enough, they had the drug we needed. I faxed the prescription to them and started to write down directions when the guy says to me: "My mother has new insurance but we don't have the card. Is this going to be a problem?" I told him it probably wouldn't be (even though I knew it would). We have sneaky ways of finding out what medicare part D plan people are on but I was off in 5 minutes. He told me his mother gave him a letter from Humana with her info. "Great!" I said. "This will be easy then." He handed me the letter and it was page 3 of a 3 page letter where the pertinent information I needed was on page 1. He told me his mom was in the car and she had the rest of the letter and he went out to the parking lot to get her. I continued to work while I was waiting for them to come back and all the sudden the cutest little old lady walks up to the counter. Mom was 94 years old. I got nearly all the info I needed except, of course, her ID number. Meanwhile, the son and I were talking about getting the prescription at the store in Parrish and I was telling him I faxed it there and told them he'd be by in a couple hours to get it. Mom asks, "Are we getting the medicine?" I told her no, we didn't have it and she could get in in Parrish.

"Paris? How am I going to get to Paris?"

I was really tough not to laugh but I managed. I corrected her and told her it was about 20 minutes south of us and that her son had the address of the store.

"Oh. Ok. Are you going to give me my medicine before I go there?"

"No, ma'am. They're going to give you your prescription in Parrish."

"My medicine is in Paris?"

"PARRISH" I said in that voice you use with 94 year old women who can't hear. You've heard people use that very loud, very clear voice before I'm sure. "Not Paris."

"That's right." She wandered off while I finished typing in her info. By now her son decides he just wanted to go straight there and get it as soon as he can. I called the Parrish store and told them. Mom wandered back to the counter with a box of Kleenex.

"Is my medicine ready?"

"No, ma'am, your son is going to go get it at another store."

"The one in Paris?"

(sigh)"Yes, ma'am, that one."

"Can I pay for my tissues there or should I pay for them here?"

"You should pay for them here, ma'am. The cash register is on the other side."

She paid for her tissues and off to France she went!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sometimes the answer is so simple

John and I have been trying to find ways to motivate Jack to do things we want him to do. You know, subversive stuff like picking up his toys and eating his dinner. His preschool puts happy faces and sad faces on the sheet they send home with him every day and apparently the fear of getting a sad face is a pretty big deal amongst the 3 year olds there. John had the idea of getting a small dry erase board and putting it on the fridge. We drew a happy face on it and if Jack acts up all we have to do is ask him if he wants a sad face. It's worked wonders so far. He especially likes it if you draw a smiley face with teeth.

Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best ones.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Remembering Hell

It's hard to believe it's been 15 years since we were in Somalia but it has been. Time sure flies when you're safe and sound. I was poking around on the internet today and found an online book called Basement of Hell. The memories just keep flooding back like everything happened yesterday after reading some of this stuff. It was a life changing experience that I'll never forget. I can almost feel the stink of the place in the back of my throat. I've never smelled anything like it since. It's a bizarre combination of sewage, death, decay, garbage, dust, sweat and sunscreen. I'm pretty sure Calvin Klein won't be coming out with a cologne that smells like Mogadishu. It was an experience I could have lived without but then again I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. There's nothing quite like seeing the extreme poverty and desperation of the Somali people to appreciate what I have here. The people I met from all over the world and learning exactly how Americans are viewed in a lot of countries. At least how we were viewed back in 1993-94. Our image has changed somewhat since then I fear.

It wasn't all awful. While alcohol was forbidden for Americans it wasn't for everyone. A buddy and I snuck over to the Israeli PX one evening and ended up getting rip roaring drunk with a couple soldiers from Zimbabwe. I traded unit patches with soldiers from Kenya and had tea with an Irish platoon in the mid-day heat. I learned to play pinochle and built friendships that will never be forgotten. I even created a small international incident when I punched a Pakistani soldier. Now there's an interesting story!

My Lieutenant and I were filling our fuel cans at the fuel point and 3 Pakis asked him if they could have a picture with us. He was all for it but I was leery. LT assured me nothing bad would happen. Well as we were getting ready for the picture one of the Pakis threw his arm around my shoulders and grabbed my left breast. I decked the guy. LT freaked and says, "What the f&$% did you do that for, Mallory?" I looked him in the eye and said, "He grabbed my tit, sir." LT's eyes got HUGE and he blushed and said, "Carry on." We filled the rest of the fuel cans and left. I thought it was pretty much over after that but the next day I was sitting in the maintenance van and a Colonel showed up asking for me. LT tried to cover for me, he was convinced I was going to get busted. I could hear him outside stammering, "Um...Sir...um...Mallory is on a service call I think....maybe she's in her tent...umm..." I decided to bail him out. I stepped outside and said, "I'm Mallory." The Colonel proceeded to tell me that the CO of the Pakistani soldier that grabbed me wanted to know if I wanted to have the guy whipped. I told him no, unless I can do it. The Colonel said, "That's probably not an option." So I said, "Okay, just let him know that he'll get a beatdown any time he grabs an American woman." The Colonel left and I thought the Lieutenant was going to faint!

It wasn't normally fun though. Seeing a partially decomposed body is awful. That's not something you see growing up in coastal Maine. The nightly sniper fire and mortar attacks went from being frightening to just being annoying. I'll never forget the fear of seeing tracer rounds wizzing by about 5 feet above my head. The disgusting living conditions, vermin, disease and death that surrounded us those months are impossible to ever describe much less put completely behind you.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Overworked, angry and going bald.

Yes, bald from pulling my hair out. Seriously, a 10 hour day spent trying to do the work of two people really takes it out of you. It's frustrating because it didn't have to be like this. We had a guy call out today because...get this...it's raining. Yes, it's frikin RAINING. He called in late twice and finally decided to just not come in at all and ditched us for the day. So here we are on one of the busiest days of the busiest week of the year short one tech. Happy frikin days. So I had an incredibly ADHD day running from workstation to workstation backing up people. Then the delivery shows up and I got that checked in. The phreakin phone was ringing off the hook the fax machine kept running out of paper and dude decides to call out because he got wet riding to work on his motorcycle in the rain. We managed to keep our heads above water but just barely. My back and knees are killing me.

So here I am going through the day from hell and this guy calls wanting us to carry something we don't carry and order it so it'll get to the store an hour before he called us. He insisted that he knew we really carry the item because he built CVS and he knows what we have on our shelves. He absolutely knows what's on the shelf better than I would. I mean I'm only the inventory specialist for our store. I put him on hold so he could have the same conversation with our pharmacist that I just had. I think the idiot was drunk or something. He livened things up a bit.

I have tomorrow off. If Friday is anything like today was I'm going to end up totally bald.

Oh, as promised, I'm letting you guys know I got my notebooks in the mail! The three pack came with a pen, a pencil and a sticker as well. It was a bright spot in an otherwise crappy day. I can't wait to fill it up with the nifty little bits of string that come out of my imagination.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Ear infections stink!

Poor Jack. He started feeling bad yesterday, had a little temp and was pretty lethargic. John took him to the doctor this morning and poor Jack has an ear infection. We're loading him up with amoxicillin and tylenol. The antibiotic should work especially well because Mommy filled his prescription.

The amoxicillin is apparently doing it's job. He's hungry like crazy and ate some spaghetti, apple sauce and a bowl of cereal. That's more than he's eaten in the last 36 hours put together.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Jack's Super Fun Day


We took Jack to the Lowry Park Zoo today. It was a good day. The zoo wasn't crowded and he walked most of the way. I think it's time to scrap the stroller, he really doesn't use it any more. I mean Dude's 3 1/2 now. Strollers are for babies!

I always like visiting the Southern Bald Eagles. Both of them have injuries that prohibit life in the wild. They love to pose for pictures.










Jack pretty much ran through the whole place and scored himself a stuffed elephant and a new hat. By about 1 o'clock he was wiped out and we came home. He really got into riding on the carousel. He rode the elephant of course. He's really into elephants since seeing Tamani, the baby elephant. Today we watched him interact with another male at the drinking hole in thier habitat.

He kept stealing water from the mouth of the other elephant. He's starting to get his tusks and is much bigger than he was last time we visited.