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houston we have a problem...
the chicken pox have landed... what started out as one questionable pimple-like spot has now, 24 hours later, blossomed into the beginnings of full-blown pox. she's got about 18 spots now, mostly all still pretty small and non-itchy looking. although there's one on her head and one on her back that are already looking ick.
so - no new term of swimming to start for us tomorrow. no playing with friends (that we've already exposed on tuesday).. it's quarratine at the dunne house - too bad that chicken pox parties have gone out of fashion, eh? i wouldn't mind the company, that's for sure. hopefully we'll weather this with grace and ease. (poxy little fingers crossed)
my mother in law is coming to town on tuesday evening to help out - thank goodness - since mc will need to be out of nursery for at least a week. can i have more stress please? pending surgery, new house hell, the GP saga and now chicken pox? goodness. have a good weekend - more from chicken central later, i'm sure!
well - good news just keeps on coming.. the parking space people have agreed to be flexible with the parking space payment. we just won't get the final deed to the space until all monies have been received. we can, however, park in said space in the meantime. and hey - at the end i'll have a deed to a 10 x 7 foot piece of asphalt that i forked over £10 grand for. you do realise that i'm about to pay £142 per square foot, don't you? crikey. my car better appreciate that.
have had long email conversation with dr phil - and they've agreed to keep us on at the practice until we move. whew! have i ever mentioned how much i respect dr phil? he's a really good guy. i'd like to do something cool for him when we finally leave his practice. any ideas? they're getting a new building to move into at easter - maybe something for his office wall. anyone? anyone?
anyone know anything about chicken pox?
update to the update
holy goodness gracious to heaven... we just put in an offer on said flat of £192.500 and it's been accepted. uhhh... okay. how nerve-wracking. might need to sell that aforementioned kidney. holy cow i feel so adult. to lighten the mood.. here's some pictures of mary catherine.. she had her first standing up shower this weekend - thought it was awesome, like one big puddle!
 
updates...
- the royal london admissions woman has apologised after realising she's been sending letters to my old address.. one that i moved away from a year and a half ago.
- surgery date is a week from monday, 8th march (yikes)
- house offer of 190k rejected... parking space costs £10,000.. think i could live in a cardboard box on my purchased parking space? geez-o-pete
- all is not lost on house .. am trying other options. tempted to sell kidney.
- was joking about kidney.
hide your eyes.. it's a rant.
i strongly dislike this country's medical system. why, you ask? because i'm caught in between a rock and a hard place and no one seems to be able to help me. we have/had a wonderful GP, without whom i could have a child in this country and not panic about healthcare. however - we moved out of his catchment area while i was pregnant with mc. i called the NHS asking for a new GP and was told to sit tight with the one we had while they assigned to our family - since all the GPs in our new area were closed to new patients.
so we got to keep the most wonderful GP on the planet. he made a house call when i was recoup'ing from my c-section and mc had a cold when she was two weeks old. he went out of his way to help all three of us on several occasions and is a really lovely and kind man, whom i really admire and like a great deal.
his partner in the practice, however, is another story. i'm not sure what i did to make her dislike me - but she's never been too kind and when i last saw her three weeks ago for an emergency appointment, she told andrew and i that she was dropping us from the practice. being cruel to be kind - those were her words. i was gutted and thought that dr phil (most wonderful GP) was aware of her actions. well - i got an email from him today asking why we'd left! firstly, i didn't know that she would DROP us completely, leaving a family with a small child without a doctor without asking the NHS to reassign us - nor did i think that she'd do that without letting dr phil know.
ugh. so i've written him this big hormonal email. man - today is such a monday
whew - what a great weekend... gymboree play & music, hanging out with friends.. pizza party.. i'm tired just thinking about it all! more later.
  
i called the royal london's pre-admission office and got bitch slapped by the woman there for not keeping my appointment yesterday. she didn't really care that i didn't know about said appointment.
so now i have another appointment for the 2nd of march.. and drum roll please my rock filled gall bladder will be removed from my body on the 8th of march. maybe
it seems the way things work here is that you ring up the hospital on the day of your surgery between 1030 and noon to see if they have a bed. if not, you are rescheduled. if so, you pop in around 2 or 3 (yes, the woman actually said 'pop in') to have your surgery. it all seems far too casual. i don't want a 'maybe if we can fit you in' surgery date. i want dedicated surgeons studying my case and preparing well in advance. it's horrible enough that i won't meet the person cutting me open until i'm already on the table in the operating room.
can you tell i'm not handling this well? 'so, what are you doing on monday?' 'well i thought i'd see if i could be cut open - but if that's not an option i'm totally free.. why, want to do something?'
my apologies for the delays in posting... i've been blogging my little heart out - but it seems that our isp is having dns worries. blah de blah technical technical blah.
this saturday we're taking mary catherine to a gymboree play and music class. i assure you, however, that we will not be purchasing any classes further to this free trial session.. as they're £145 for 12 classes. and that's just the play.. add another £115 on if you want music too. i love her dearly - but we can flip flop around our flat and give her an acordian much cheaper than that. but i'm stoked about the free trial class.
the royal london hospital called and left a message. apparently i had a 'pre-admission' appointment yesterday of which i was terribly unaware. i supopse this means that my gall bladder surgery is going to happen sooner rather than later (well - it's been almost a year since we started this event on the good old NHS - love you mr waiting list) .. i'm totally nervous.
i poo you not.
here's the first line of an email i got this evening... of course, it's spam - but it made me laugh.
"fantangariffic! I took the only one pizzle of Cialgs and that was such a GREAT weekend! All the girls at the party were just punch-drizzunk with my potenshialle. i wurk it wurk it. I have dogged all of them THREE times but my dongle WAS able to do some more!"
well now, isn't mister mister just a lucky so-and-so? i mean, his dongle was able to do some more! bless.
did i tell you all about this flat we went to see on saturday? it was horribly filthy and i think we interupted a jamaican love-fest to view it (erm, that was a little awkward - oh hello people lying a bit nude on a mattress in the living room!) but we really really liked it. i wonder how much we can drop our asking price due to the fact that it's missing a few door frames, stinks of stale smoke and hasn't seen a cleaning brush in what seemed like a long time?
we're waiting to hear back from the seller - currently no parking space is offered and we need a car parking space. other places we've been have wanted up to £15,000 for a space and there's NO WAY we can afford that. actually our little pot of money is looking rather miniscule every time i glance at it. i so want a home of our own and this one really grabbed a and i...
no word yet today from the 13 year old estate agent we met with on saturday... called his office and he's out ill today. nice one. so waiting we will remain. i don't wait well, but don't want to seem overly keen. i hate the games that we're all forced to pay with regards to large purchases. cars, houses etc. even people who promise 'transparent' pricing build in a little wiggle room.
also just talked to mortgage guy who informed me that he'd given me the wrong monthly payment amount.. so instead of the £1045 i was expecting, it'll be £1225. so that's £180/month more than i'd been counting on. that assumes that we'll borrow the full amount. who knows - maybe we won't. the £1225 figure is also £33 more than we currently pay. add that to the council tax bill which might be more expensive that we currently shuck out for (£116 currently) and a monthly service fee and all of a sudden what looked affordable is getting kind of scary. now - 33 more a month in mortgage and a little more council tax isn't the end of the world. and the service fee will probably be about £100/month. so we're talking anything from £133 updwards more than what we pay now.
is it worth it? of course - if we borrow less than the max we're qualified for - then the mortgage payments will be lower, which might balance out the higher council tax and service fees. so - it's a big time wait and see. i hate that.
okay- funny story to take my and your mind off waiting. know how sometimes clothes get inside other clothes when you wash them? well - apparently yesterday a thong of mine hitched a ride to work in my trousers. i went to wee and saw a pair of underwear that looked a lot like mine on the bathroom floor - my first (dumb) thought was, 'hey, i own a pair like that!'.. it took me about 2 seconds for it to click that those were, indeed, my pants. what would i have done if they'd made their escape someplace else? like in the office! nice one!
so many things to think about ... ick. i wish i were rich.
just for fun.. i've set up the cheese stands alone shop on cafepress.com. mainly to buy from myself - but you're welcome to gawk as well. click here.
and in the darkness, blog them.
for those of you following the 44lb footlocker of past .... it arrived safely at my parents' house and my mother did the honours. inside was a bunk of 10 year old crap! things like old tshirts from college and summer camp .. there were also weird things in it like paper plates, half a canoe paddle from summer camp and a christmas pillow. i have no idea why he thought i'd want all that bunk after i'd lived without it for four years. he could've saved himself about $30 by just putting it out for the bin men. oh well. my mom is going to give most of it away to charity (like they'd even want 10 year old tshirts?!) ... so bizarre.
we went to see a friend of a's who'd just had a baby yesterday. so, welcome to the world baby oliver! mc was not too keen on said baby - but she managed to cope. i'm helping the new mum cope with the early joys of breastfeeding - man, did it take me back to mc's tiny baby days. here's a pic of mc, oliver and i. note how interested mc looks. uh - not!
my barrista gave me a voucher for a free coffee today... i feel loved.
the friday five..
1. Are you superstitious?
sort of.. i will pick up a penny, but i don't freak at the sight of a black cat (which is good, since we have one!).. i don't walk under ladders as a matter of principal and i don't worry about breaking mirrors. one thing i won't do though, which is strange, is open an umbrella indoors.
2. What extremes have you heard of someone going to in the name of superstition?
i haven't really... does that make me strange?
3. Believer or not, what's your favorite superstition?
whistling or mentioning macbeth in a theatre. both of which i adhere to. i also believe in the use of a ghost light.
4. Do you believe in luck? If yes, do you have a lucky number/article of clothing/ritual?
i do believe in luck - i just never seem to have much of it.
5. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?
only usually when things go my way... go figure.
ha ha - someone finally wrote about the ads for the new tesco in the basement of our building. see them here. i find them hilarious. wonder if i can pick up a gimp suit when i buy my organic milk?
butter wouldn't melt..
if one more person tells me that they didn't know i was the king of hearts i'm going to scream. seriously - scream.
i just got an email from my ex-husband announcing that he's sent a 44lb foot locker of 'things he thought i'd want' to my parents' house. now this is stuff that i left in DC when i moved to england. 4 YEARS AGO uh - hello? two things i can't figure out.
a.) why does he still have things i left behind 4 years on? and
b.) why in the world does he think i want them?
who would want the past arriving in a 44lb foot locker on their parents' doorstep? do i even live near my parents? no. should they have to look after a freaking footlocker until i'm there again? no. what the hell.
i'm seriously peeved - can you tell? i mean - for f*ck's sake - a 44lb footlocker! of course, you know i'm going to have to have my mother open it immediately and see what the hell he thinks i'd want after all these years. oh well - i see a big donation to charity. crap like this makes me realise why i divorced him. never should've married him - what a farce.
on another unrelated note... we tried the 'cry it out' method of putting mary catherine to bed. when she was very drowsy we put her down in her crib and, of course, she started crying. and crying. then screaming, then calling mama while crying and screaming. i let her go for five minutes, then went in and comforted her and left again. she started screaming/crying/howling/yelling/whimpering and eventually choking. she was so upset she made herself vomit. andrew has decided (and i kinda agree with him) that we're not a cry it out kind of family. it was horrible and i feel like probably the worst mother on the planet for even suggesting it.
of course, i also feel like i had to make the decision to do it on my own without much support from andrew who is now so convinced that we've royally screwed up mc that he's quite cross with me. man - what an evening. sorry to dump on you. anyone have any ideas how i can better get my child to sleep without involving the cry it out method? currently we give her a bottle and hold her until she sleeps... any advice is appreciated.
a few pictures...
i'm drowning at work - but a few quick pictures from this weekend's adventures.
   
this weekend we're going to centerparcs. and i can't wait. it's like i'm on the countdown to relaxation. a's going to take a fencing course. i hope he doesn't stab himself. i decided to take a watercolour course. it'll be nice to get back to brush on paper.. pushing pixels around is fun and a nice creative outlet - but it's not the same.
mc is going to parachute play - i used to love playing with those when i was young. of course - she's really young, but i think she'll like it all the same. more later.
never be lost for what to listen to ever again... how much fun. music plasma
sorry to feed you meme crap - but i've been ill lately and not up to posting. below is a map of the states i've visited. i'm an east coast girl, can you tell?
*** edited - map host died. oh well.
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