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well - the last minute packing has begun. we're out the door in a few minutes and on our way. well, i say on our way - i mean, on our way to run a thousand errands before we're actually on the road. my husband has decided that he needs to go shopping for a new pair of jeans. i question his timing, but shant complain. my father is a bit stressy and barking at everyone a bit and mc is in a terrible grumpy mood and wearing an outfit that she chose. i can honestly say that it doesn't match and is pretty horrible.
see - aren't we having a good time already? i'd better jump, because 'the car isn't going to pack itself' as i've just been told.
i love family vacations. i won't have internet access - so won't be able to post until we're back next thursday. have a good week!
We leave for Disneyworld tomorrow afternoon. I'm very excited. Okay, not that excited about an eight hour car journey, but at least we're spreading that over two days. I figure if I offer to drive, then I don't have to be on the Mary Catherine entertainment committee! Mother of the year, that's me!
I've done lots of shopping since arriving here. It dawned on me when we were packing in the UK that I have no warm weather clothes in my new (smaller) size. So I arrived here with one pair of jeans and a few shirts. It's been fun shopping for clothes and not having to buy the biggest size available. I actually tried on some shirts yesterday and didn't buy them for a new reason - I didn't like them, not that they didn't fit! It was a good feeling.
A popular store here has started doing plus sizes - so I ordered a bunch of trousers from there, purchasing four different styles in two sizes, not knowing how they would fit. All but one pair had to go back as they were all too big! Another good feeling!
So, clothes-wise, I'm all set. Now I just have to pack for Andrew and Mary Catherine. It's hard to think of what we'll need for four days in the theme parks. Stressing about it is part of the fun for me, so I'm not complaining too hard!
The High Museum today was really good fun. They have great programs for toddlers/preschoolers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today she and I made a camel bas relief sculpture. She painted it and we all had a really good time. She is definitely my child - she kept adding loads of colourful paint until her work of art was a lovely shade of brown. When I'm making art, I always go one step too far and ruin it. I have to force myself to stop and not just add that one last thing which always plonks it over the edge. It was fun to watch her do the exact same thing. At one point there was a sun in the sky behind the camel - now the camel is in front of a lovely green/brown horizon. Nature or Nurture?
this will be fast - am now five minutes late!
we're here and having a great time. yesterday we bought mary catherine her very own baseball bat. it's pink! it's a real aluminium tee ball bat and of course, we bought her a tee as well. we had the best time in the front yard yesterday playing tee ball! she can hit the ball no problem - not that she'll get much practice in the UK!
we're headed to the high museum of art in downtown atlanta. just andrew, mc and i are going and i'm really looking forward to it. they have programmes for children on tuesdays and i think mc will enjoy it.
rubbish post - i'll write more later. :)
it's 6:10am... (of course, it's really 5:10 am - the UK sprang ahead last night) i'm awake and already doing mental check lists in my head. i hate this part of travelling. i'd like to just skip the next 14 hours, please!
soon we'll be out the door on the way to the airport, where we'll valet park the car (i love valet parking at the airport - whoever thought of it was a genius), check in and hang out and grab a coffee until our gate opens. then we'll make our way to the gate, which at gatwick often feels like you're heading to atlanta on foot. then we'll spend the next 9 hours and 40 minutes all squished together with a couple of hundred people that we don't know.
then we'll land, already exhausted and make our way through the atlanta airport - which can be quite annoying with lengthy waits through immigration and the horrid security check to leave the international terminal. then we'll schlep onto the train and go to our second round of baggage claim.
the good thing is that, at the top of the elevator, my parents will be waiting and mary catherine will run to them and i'll forget how tired i am and ... and... well, it's just a nice feeling. i suppose it's the comfort of family and coming home. it makes the entire ordeal worthwhile. of course, at the moment, lying here in bed wondering what i've forgotten to pack -- i'm a long way from our end result for today! guess i'd better get up and get things going.
see you on the other side of the ocean.
Have just now, after a flurry of last minute 'please can yous,' left the office and am officially on holiday! Now, all that's left is to find what we're taking to the States and pack them. We're certainly not taking that much, so hopefully I can resist the plagiue of the last minute packer... You know 'ooh I should take that, and since I'm just throwing stuff in a bag and have no idea what's in there, I'll take it but regret having brought so much once I unpack on the other end' syndrome. (It's closely related to 'damn we brought so much to begin with and have purchased too much crap while we're here - how the heck are we going to get it all home' disease... Which is a distant relative of the 'well we got it in our bags, even though we had to borrow another suitcase, thank goodness we didn't have to pay excess baggage but how the hell are we going to get it all in the car' palsy) Who cares! Let the games commence - mama's on holiday!
On way home from work.... Have I mentioned that I only have one more work day before we're on holiday for two weeks?! Oh ho ho I'm so looking forward to the time off. I am also looking forward to getting to spend two whole weeks 24/7 with Mary Catherine. I think that it's the nature of the working parent beast - but I do think it's a bit sad that I don't get to spend more than 48 continuous hours with her normally. But, hey, that's what holidays are for. And now at her age - heading to school - I'd be seeing her less anyway. So I guess it's almost time to grow out of that particular guilt. Did I mention that I'm going on holiday? Not looking to forward to the flights - but they're a necessary evil. Mary Catherine is a good flyer - it's just tedious. Nine hours + in a confined space isn't very much fun for anyone, really. Well - maybe the lucky so-and-so's in First Class. This trip Mary Catherine will pass 75,000 miles flown. And she's just three!
Commute haikus...
freshly from the gym
I waddle onto the train
Homeward bound I am Old lady old man
Slightly unstable on feet
Please don't fall on me God bless my ipod
Way wacky music mish mash
Glad I own headphones Young thugs meet trash teens
Too much lip stick no brain waves
Flirting makes me cringe
I normally take these quiz-things but never post the results.. but today I took this one and I was so chuffed to score 10 out of 10 that I had to share. What was your score?
| You Passed 8th Grade Math | 
Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct! |
the ones in bold belong to me..
You know you grew up in the 80's if......
1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "SIKE."
2. You can sing the rap to the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and can do the "Carlton."
3. Girls wore biker shorts under their skirts and felt stylishly sexy.
4. Two words: Hammer Pants. (I hang my head in shame)
5. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
6. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
7. You wore stone washed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it. (I wore fake Jordache, how horrid)
8. L.A.Gear....need I say more? (I never stooped that low!)
9. You remember reading "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and all the Ramona Quimby books.
10. You know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX OFF."
11. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (Oh have mercy, did I ever)
12. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.
13. You still get the urge to say "NOT" after every sentence.
14. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes (and probably in neon colors, too).
15. After you saw "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" you kept saying "I know you are, but what am I?
16. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up."
17. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates. (They use those there now?)
18. You ever got seriously injured on a Slip and Slide.
19. You have played with a Skip-It.
20. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.
21. You've gone through this nodding your head in agreement.
22. "Don't worry, be happy." (I had the entire album on cassette!)
23. You wore, like, EIGHT pairs of socks over tights with high top Reeboks.
24. You wore socks scrunched down (and sometimes still do).
25. You remember boom boxes. (Heck, I still have my first one)
26. You remember Alf, the li'l furry brown alien from Melmac.
27. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool.
28. You know all the words to Bon Jovi's "SHOT THROUGH THE HEART."
29. (You just sang those words to yourself.)
30. You remember watching Magic vs. Bird. Ohyeah............it will never be
that good again
31. Homemade Levi shorts...(I turned mine into the ones like Baby had in Dirty Dancing)
32. You remember when mullets were cool! (I am from Georgia, where they are still quite popular)
33. You had a mullet!
34. You still sing "We are the World."
35. You tight rolled your jeans.
36. You owned a banana clip.
37. You remember "Where's the Beef?
38. You used to (and probably still do) say "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" (All the time!)
39. You had big hair and you knew how to use it.
40. You wanted to be a 'Goonie'
Oh dear... if those were the 'good old days' I'm in trouble!
carrying on the proud traditions..
It's Monday and all three of us are where we should be. Two at work and one at school. Mary Catherine perked up Friday afternoon and by Saturday you'd hardly recognise her as the child who was so very sick earlier in the week. Children are weird like that.
  .
A few weeks ago, at the bookstore, Mary Catherine and I discovered a new literary icon. At first, I wasn't too thrilled with the subject matter but then as Mary Catherine wanted to read it more and more, I realised that our new friend is actually a pretty good laugh and that there are valueable lessons in his books. It also provedt to me that Mary Catherine shares the same semi-potty humour gene that I, and the rest of my family I might add, seem to have in common.
Mary Catherine and I are now big fans of Bertie. He and his books are now on my favourite children's books list, for sure. Other books to have this honour include: Everyone Poops, The Holes in your Nose, The Gas we Pass and The Mole who knew it was none of his Business.
We went to the new Idea Store at the Wharf on Saturday where we found a new Bertie book! It's about ..um.. well - farts! It's very funny and we used our brand new library card to check it out. (more info on Bertie can be found here)
While researching links for this post - I found two more books that I must have! Breasts, All about scabs and Contemplating your Bellybutton!
We (we being Mary Catherine and I) are at home once again today after our late night hospital adventure. She's definitely on the upswing of this horrible illness. She's not eaten for 24 hours, but is drinking little bits here and there. She woke up with a horrible barking cough this morning, but cough medicine seems to have knocked that on the head. Poor little sausage.
Yesterday at the hospital she was so brave. She told me that she 'wasn't going to let the doctor hear her tears'. I about burst into tears myself after she said that. She let the doctor listen to her heart and chest and didn't even flinch when he checked her ears and throat. I was really proud.
When I took her in (in her pj's and a blanket) to the hospital, she said 'hey, we know this hospital!' I know it's sort of not the norm of what's done, but I feel so much better when she's seen there. A proper paediatrician sees her there, instead of our family GP, who's never even met her. I did go through the NHS Direct route (a nurse practioner line that is available 24 hours a day - they've been very good for us since MC was born) and they put us in touch with our local out of hours doctor.
He sounded about 90 when he finally called and his advice was to keep an eye on her, put her in a dark room with a fan and if her fever got very high to sponge her down 50-60 times and then call him back.
In this country, modern medicine DOES NOT recommend that you sponge down feverish children. That's why we skipped calling him back and went straight to the hospital. This falls under my standard mistrust of the UK medical system. I tend to walk a slim line between liking it and disliking it.
Ever tried to get a three year-old to wee on command? After Mary Catherine spiked a 40.6C (that's 105 in F) fever we decided to go ahead and bring her to the A&E... If anything, I thought it would bring her fever down, as she usually perks right up when we bring her here. I was right! 40.6 is now down to 38.3, which is still a fever, but nothing to write home about. She had a full physical exam and did so well. She is one brave trooper... They're pretty sure that it's viral, but because her fevers have been so unreactive to medicine, they want a urine sample. Which brings us to the first sentence of this post. We've squatted, we've cajoled, we've threatened and we've begged. We've done a LOT of the latter. Now we're letting her colour and we're trying to convince her to drink some water. The child has not wee'd since 645pm! Think good elimination thoughts for us, won't you...?
MCD's really sick today.. much worse than yesterday. We started off our morning with a good vomit ('why don't they ever vomit in their own beds', was the thought going through my mind at the time) and have gone downhill from there. She's got a whopping fever that is only semi-responding to the usual drugs and is generally lethargic and unwell.
She's finally started drinking if I ask her to and she's gone wee ONCE today. I'm battling against her to fight dehydration. Andrew had to work today, so I'm home with her again (although I did go in for two hours this morning while A stayed with her and went to the chemist to get more drugs). I'm sure it'll be fine - but if she doesn't start responding to fever reducers soon I may begin a mild panic.
The walk in centres are open until 10pm tonight and there's always our favourite A&E if things nose dive, so I'm not that worried. I just want her to be better. She's so rarely sick that this is really throwing me for a loop.
today i told mary catherine that if she was feeling up to it and if she was good all day, eating a good lunch and taking a good nap, that i would take her to our local park to feed the ducks and geese.
on the way to said park there is a playground. now - you must understand that i live sort of in 'the hood'. it's bearable, but the teenage girls and pre-teen and heck, even the 'tween' girls are all pretty hard looking. they all have on far too much make up and far too revealing clothing. i know it makes me sound like an old fuddy - and i might be heading that way, but young girls just shouldn't dress like that, in my opinion.
anyway - i digress - so we go and feed the birds and have a nice time, even though it's incredibly cold. on our way back i decide that the empty playground would be fine for a few minutes. and it was - until a gaggle of of said girls showed up. i tried to convince mary catherine that we'd had our turn and that it was time to go home. she told me that she wanted to play with the girls who'd just come into the playground. i told her that they were silly big girls and doing their own thing. mary catherine went off on a bender about how she was a big girl and wanted to play with those girls.
i just couldn't bring myself to tell her that those girls wouldn't, in any way, want to play with a three year-old. i especially didn't tell her that I didn't want her playing with them. then she looks at me with tears in her eyes and says, 'but who's going to play with me? i'm alone.' it was positively heart breaking. i felt so badly for her and didn't handle the situation well at all, i'm sure. she's just so innocent in thinking that everyone who comes to the playground would surely want to play with her.
i suppose it's a major life lesson to learn otherwise. i just didn't think that it would come at three. she's lying on the floor still dressed in her coat at the moment. a byproduct of a whopper of a tantrum she had on the front step. not good, not good at all.
Mary Catherine and I are sitting here watching the oddly attractive Donnie Osmond in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Andrew doesn't like it very much, so she and I have to get our 'fix' when we can! There's just something about his six-pack mingled with the fake Michael Bolton hair! Have mercy. See what happens when I don't go to work!?
Now Mary Catherine has the not-so-nice cold.. She had a fever this morning, which is always a 'school stopper' and looked at me and said that she couldn't go to school because she was poorly. Let me tell you, the look she gave me made my heart cry - poor thing. She also said her throat was too sore and telling her that she couldn't go to school. Bless.
So we're at home today - I'm working and she's being really good and laying on the sofa, watching the telly. I know she's not well if she's not bouncing around as she's usually full of energy. I've given her some Medised, which is supposed to make her sleepy, so she can rest and heal. Mary Catherine is one of those odd children (Andrew's the same way, actually) that sleepy medicines usually make her bounce off the walls. Medised is the only one that seems to remotely work. She's not asleep, but just kind of relaxed/stoned looking.
Hopefully she'll be better soon. I'm a little alarmed because my throat is starting to hurt again!
I'm stealing some computer time while Mary Catherine has her daily 15 minutes of television. She's watching Charlie and Lola. We love Charlie and Lola - if you've never seen it, you should. I think it's on the Disney channel in the States and on CBeeebies here in the UK. Lola reminds me a lot of Mary Catherine. Very small and very funny.
Andrew has the same cold I had last week. Only, for some reason, when he has it it's 900% more dramatic than when I had it. He's just asked if I can put MC to bed tonight so he can rest. He is sick, you know. Well - that's fine and dandy, but umm... I still had to function when I was sick last week.
How is this fair?! Sometimes being the woman/Mummy/Wife just isn't fair. When he's sick, it's major.. When I'm sick it's just a hinderance in my regularly scheduled life.
No, I haven't been abducted by aliens or (heaven forbid) offline (certainly a fate worse than death in my opinion).. I've just been, well - you know.. around. The funny thing is that it's not like I haven't had things to say or the lack of time in which to say them. I guess I've just been lazy.
London is cold at the moment, that special 'gets in your bones because my, isn't it damp' kind of cold. This past weekend we took Mary Catherine to a park and we all bundled up. I had my coat hood up a'la Kenny from South Park - very attractive, I'm sure. I was still freezing. Thankfully, there's a lovely cafe at said park that serves very nice toasted sandwiches and lovely hot chocolates. I know the cocoa was good - I 'borrowed' some of Andrew's.
Saturday night was 'date night' at the Dunne house. Complete with babysitter and everything! We went to dinner and a movie and it was very nice to be childless adults for a few hours. I was, however, very glad to get home and check on Mary Catherine. How it's possible to miss someone so much in four short hours is beyond me. There are times in the evenings where I totally want to wake her up to hang out with her.
Anyway - two more weeks until we're on holiday. I so can not wait.
The spa last night was looooovely. It was good to gab and just laze around in a robe and flip flops. I even 'did' the world famous swing over the atrium swimming pool - felt like a swimsuit model! By the way, I realise that I did not LOOK like one - I think my hair was actually standing up rather chicken-like all over my head. Nice, huh?
Am headed to the gym now - need my latest dose of 'face so red you'd think I'm having a brain hemmorage' fun...
In a mere 6 hours I will be at the spa, relaxing and catching up with an old friend from my past life (that seems a million years ago) in DC. We are heading to the Sanctuary in Covent Garden - the same spa I went to a few weeks ago as my Christmas present from my boss. It's lovely there, an oasis of tranquility and all that jazz.
What I like about it is that they have larger sized robes and you can just pad around in your flip flops and dressing gown, sipping mineral water while you contemplate which fashion magazine to read next. Another favourite bit is that they have big padded areas and lots of blankets available to wrap up in - they encourage sleep!
I'm having reflexology as my treatment du jour - I've never had it and have always been interested. The idea that the foot is a microcosm for the entire body is a way out concept. I'll let you know how my dogs and I get on!
Ah Tuesday. I don't have that much to report, but didn't want to leave you hanging. I had a day at home yesterday and got a lot of work done and - gasp - took a nap. It was glorious.
Speaking of relaxing - there's plenty of that sort of thing on our horizons. Tomorrow, I'm headed back to the Sanctuary spa in Covent Garden with my friend Kristen, who's visiting from the States. They do an evening package, so we will be enjoying the spa from 5-10pm. I have reflexology booked and I'm really looking forward to it.
In a mere two and a half weeks we are heading to America for a much needed holiday. We'll be in Atlanta for a week and then heading to Orlando to visit 'Mickey's summer home' for a further five days. This will be Mary Catherine's second adventure with the mouse and I can not wait to see her reaction. We went to Disneyland Paris when she'd just turned two, but she's so much more aware of things now than she was then.
My mom and dad are going with us and we're already booked for dinner with the Princesses and Mary Catherine is over the moon with the thought. Actually, wait - so am I!
I thought you all might like to see photos from my Citizenship ceremony. I like this photo because it shows the Registrar's book. My life in the United Kingdom is slowly being recorded in these books. My marriage is recorded in one in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Mary Catherine's birth is recorded in one in Hackney, London and now my citizenhood is recorded in this book in Newham, London. For some odd reason, I find it much nicer to think that my life moments are stored in a book rather than in some random computer database. Now, I know that they're also noted in said database - but I prefer to focus on the book aspect. I've always gotten a kick out of the fact that my marriage certificate is hand written.
It's just much different than how it's done in the States.
Where's my after-exercise high?
This whole exercise is like drugs thing - a big fat lie. I just worked out and I assure you, this feels nothing like (what I've read, mind you) being high is like
I'm exhausted! Of course, I bet the 'exer-druggies' don't have to go to tesco and do an emergency shop because they were slack at the weekend. I'm currently in line at the grocery store - not very glamourous in my sweaty 'didn't have time for after work-out shower and blow dry' clothes. I'l stop now, in case your pity metre is full!
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