Kiedy

Levi has found another dog!  He called him Kiedy (rhymes with Icy).  I can see why he loves him because he is almost exactly the same as Icy, who is now about eighteen months worth of love old and is starting to show a little wear.  Icy actually has a waist now where he has been hugged at night.  Kiedy is the same feel as Icy is; or more correctly was.  Icy is still the most loved as you can see by the pride of place in his sleep, but Kiedy will get there I am sure.   

I am still pretty sore from the tooth extraction but it is getting there.  It still feels a little strange where there should be a tooth but it is just missing!  Tonight I also redid the sidebar of the blog.  I had forgotten really that there are people who don't know my story, or Levi's or Frankie's and I have added a very short story about Frankie and added a photo for those who didn't get to meet him in real life.  It is still a hard time of year. I am trying to stay positive, but the sore tooth is making that more difficult.  Now I am just rambling and I am going to bed! 

Tired and Toothless

Today was about luck.  Now I actually don't really believe in luck much and see it more of an exercise in statistics.  Today I could almost start believing in it again.  I was due to get my split tooth out today in the city.  I hate going into the city and today didn't change that at all!  I was going to ditch the car at a railway station and then catch a train in, because it is impossible to find parking and it costs a fortune!  So off I go with all the best intentions in the world.  It was impossible to find a park!  I'm glad I had left plenty of time in there for the trip.  There was no park at Ferny Grove.  Nothing at Keperra.  Zip at Grovely.  I was struggling and at the same time getting closer and closer to town.  By Grovely I started to feel like the car was handling poorly and so I pulled off and sure enough the back left tire was getting really flat.  I could feel the nail that was in it! 

So my next step was to go to a service station and fill it up.  Naturally, the air hose didn't work.  Actually more correctly, the air hose wouldn't work on the flat tire.  It didn't have any trouble on the other three but would not activate on the only tire that really needed it!  I drove to Kmart and had them fill it with their big machine.  I was feeling like a pathetic girl; one of those "Oh Officer, my nail broke so I can't fix my tire" kind of girls!  Probably to make me feel better rather than because there was any truth in it, the attendent said that sometimes the automatic hoses don't work if the tire is too flat.  Umm, thanks for trying buddy, but I still feel like an idiot!  By this time, I was too late to do anything other than drive into town and pay a million dollars to park. 

So I am in with the oral surgeon (who had the bedside manner of a brick) and he said that it would take him about five minutes to get the tooth out all told and that it wouldn't hurt too much afterward, just a bruised feeling!  Twenty minutes later, multiple tools and times when he was lifting and shaking my head around, the tooth finally comes out but not before he had to drill into the base over and over. At the end he shook his head and said;

"You know how I said it wouldn't hurt too much, I was wrong, this is really going to hurt. I will give you some better pain relief than I normally do"

'Great!' I am thinking! I think there were multiple factors involved in that one and the biggest of those is that I am not and likely will never be anywhere close to osteoporotic! I had my biometrics done lately and my bone mass percentage was around 10%. It is supposed to be around 7%. I am not going to tell you my fat percentage! When we were doing frame size/bone size in high school, I wasn't even on the female scale at all and I had to get to large on the men's scale. Yep, never going to be some petite thing!

On the way home and still numb (thankfully) I stopped and got the tire fixed properly, wandered around Kmart and then just as I'm thinking that I need to get home soon and try out those drugs, the car was done!

Tonight is the 70 million dollar lottery jackpot. When we went for pizza tonight I turned in last week's ticket and had won $320. So see! I had a lucky day!

Beach Bliss

We had a great long weekend.  Plenty of play time, plenty of beach time and lots of chill out time.  I love this time, when Levi and I go somewhere really fun and can just chill out and play, instead of stressing about routines and schedules.  It is more important after weeks where I have had to fly away, even if this time it was only for a day.  We played on the beach, making the now requisite sand castle.  This time we built parking lots and train stations as well and I am sure they will now be included forever, because that is just how his mind works!  I loved the light on the beach and there was barely anyone else around.  Levi was surfed a little bit with his Boogie board but the waves were way too choppy to make it fun and I was grateful, because I am a wimp and hate water that is even a little cold.  Levi is so sweet.  After he was finished with his surfing and wrapped up in his towel, he went over to the lifeguard and thanked him for 'watching him'.  I am sure that doesn't happen as often as it should!

Tonight after we got home, we went to Pam's for a project and then we all went to Sizzler.  Levi could not have had a better weekend if he had ordered it a la carte!  I found it relaxing too.  It helps me remember as May 16th comes closer and I find myself thinking, talking and remembering Frankie more. 

Currumbin

Today we went to the Wildlife Sanctuary.  We went with some friends from the Gold Coast.  Levi and I don't know this family very well but the kids are about the same age.  They have three boys, with one either side of Levi and a little one, who seemed to have enough patience for all the kids!  It was really fun to walk around the park and watch the kids having so much fun!  Oh, there were meltdowns and crankiness and toilet accidents (and that was just from the parents! - not really!), but generally they were just kids and it is so much fun making new friends.  Levi hates being an only child and is always wanting to find friends or alternatively begging for a brother.  For a little kid who is so like his mother in his need at times for quiet and alone time, he still at times craves to have someone his age to bounce things off.  Today he had that.  The boys either side of him, esp the one slightly (about 9 months) younger wanted to be with him. 

 The birds that are the signature of the Wildlife Sanctuary were conspicuous in their absence today but the kids all quickly forgot that with playgrounds and all the other things to do.  There is a high ropes course that we had talked about beforehand, and we went up there to have a look at it.  Levi made the height restriction but it was way way too scary.  I think the thing that took me down was watching some teen aged girl go flying over our heads and slam into a padded tree.  She then had to hold on while switching her safety harness.  Levi then decided that it was just too hard anyway.  If he hadn't, I think that I would have pulled the plug as well, because it scared the snot out of me, thinking that he would be way up there by himself!

Levi's favourite activity was digging for dinosaurs.  He spent quite a bit of time unearthing them. 

The playgrounds were all wildlife themed and this huge spider's web was creepy enough, but really out there with the huge Orb Web Spider hanging above their heads as they played.  There was tree snakes hanging over branches and frogs hanging off the trees, all fake.  There were water dragons and ibis everywhere, not fake!  Levi was completely wiped out by about two in the afternoon.  We came home (to the hotel) after that and played chess and cards for a couple of hours, before either of us were worth much.

Coasting

Today was an interesting one on multiple levels.  First off we went to soccer.  Levi's team is looking so good now it is amazing.  They are spreading out (sometimes) and connecting with the ball most times they aim at it!  The teams are really evenly matched now and the result was 5 to 4.  Levi's team won.  The kids are very sweet to each other still and they all have moments when they channel Italian professional players and are a little too dramatic but it is all in a day for the Under 7s.

Then we went home and got packed for our trip down the coast, stopping only for lunch and a quick mammogram (as you do).  The mammogram that I did a couple of weeks ago needed extra views or was blurry or something.  Anyway that isn't something that I am going to spend more than bout a microsecond worrying about and went in to get squished again, but this time tighter so that they were sure it was all in focus this time. 

It was all worth it when we got to the coast.  Swimming in the pool and spa.  Looking out on these photos from our balcony.  Yep this is a great way to come down off the week we both just had!

Long Hard Days

I am so looking forward to the holidays.  I am wanting five weeks off when I don't have to work and can just get in touch with nature, myself and my son again, not necessarily in that order.  Reverse order perhaps!  It has been a long week.  Yesterday was a fourteen hour day at work.  I flew to Townsville yesterday for a little man's funeral and it is always hard.  I got to spend time in the Qantas club while I waited for my plane.  It was worth it because I hadn't had much fluid (very important in North Queensland) or food and both were there.  I am not normally in these 'clubs' but had a guest pass and it seemed a perfect time to use it.

I love watching people get at airports and on planes.  I think it is a great test of character and is very indicative of their basic personalities.  If you watch when they call for boarding, there are some people who would kill others in line to get there first and they get very upset if people randomly join the line or do anything out of the ordinary.  I am always amazed because flights don't take off until everyone is on board and you have assigned seats no less.  Getting in early doesn't get you anything more than the privilege of getting up out of your seat over and over as the more laid back of us get on.  I enjoy it.  I love to watch people. 

Qantas club has a whole other group of people to watch.  There are those who acknowledge the people helping and those that don't.  I hope that I am never so rich or important that I forget to smile and catch the eye of anyone doing me any service, regardless of how small, or that they are being paid to do it!  I was watching a family in the Qantas club, about to leave Townsville for a trip to USA.  They kept telling everyone how good the kids were being on their long trip.  Oh the delusions of parenthood!  They were in the Townsville waiting room!  They had been on the trip for a grand total of about an hour and already the cracks were showing in the kids (all just preteen type age).  I just thought with my hundred thousand mile frequent flyer experience;

"Honey, You have no idea"

I am sending them all my calming thoughts!

So that is my random rambling thoughts tonight!  Levi and I are going down the coast this weekend and we may or may not have internet.  We will have fun in the water and we are also going to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.  It will be a very nice May day weekend.  I have no idea why we have a long weekend, this weekend but I never look a gift horse in the mouth!

Reprieve

In a now getting predictable fashion, Levi has gone to bed tonight completely messing with my head.  He has spent the last nights sobbing before bed at night.  Last night he got to 45 minutes before he finally cried himself to sleep.  I finally broke and wrote an Email to the teacher to try to work out what is happening.  He dreads school for some reason that he doesn't share.  I don't know if he is having trouble in some area and isn't ready to share it.  That said, I need to get the work organized for the time we are away from school.  So I have a meeting with his teachers next week. 

Then inexplicably tonight he happily read his book, did his shower, had some cuddles and went straight to sleep.  Tonight when I picked him up he said his day at school was 'Great' and that is also a change.  I have no idea what happened in that day.  He doesn't share that either!  Now I am just positive that it is completely about messing with my head and nothing else!  Tonight it may have something to do with the two hours of soccer practice that he had.  I think after two hours he would be ready to drop into bed without a fuss.  Levi just loves soccer and I am so happy that he has found his 'sport'.  He is as happy to practice for two hours and even though it now ends in the dark and the cold, he comes off drenched in sweat and happy.  Maybe it is soccer alone that gave us the reprieve tonight.  I don't care what caused it, except to replicate it.  I am just so grateful that he is in there sleeping and it didn't involve tears, not from him or from me!

This continues to be an impossibly busy week.  It will continue to be busy through the weekend.  Tomorrow I work at the Gold Coast.  Friday I fly to Townsville.  Saturday through Monday, Levi and I are at the coast and then Tuesday I finally get this nasty tooth out by the oral surgeon.  I am starting to think that it won't slow down until we really go on holidays in June.  Oh, how I can't wait!