Nanny Diaries: "My bad" edition

Discovered today that the mom of the family I work for is a member of Mensa.

Ummmm....I guess now would be the time to stop feeling superior to her about my organizational skills, huh?

Nanny Diaries: Damn cat !!! edition

I guess it was going to happen eventually.

And at least nobody got hurt.

But, yeah: I fell on on ass yesterday.....while holding this little munchkin:

(picture taken hours before fall)

This family (I adore them, by the way) lives in a large house...a very spread out ranch. They have a 2 year old, a 10 month old, 2 great Labrador Retrievers and 2 cats. One of which is an escape artist of epic proportions. His name is Tigger (I said I adore the people, I didn't say they were imaginative in the naming of pets). All the animals stay in the house. The dogs go in and out, of course. The cats are indoor cats.

But Tigger has different ideas.

I've been warned about Tigger on more than one occasion. "Be careful when you open a door. He loves to get out." "Watch out for Tigger when you leave." Things like that. But ya know, I've got a lot of more important things to concentrate on when I'm working there: like the baby and the toddler and keeping them fed, clean and entertained while running from one end of the house to the other.

Yesterday afternoon I was taking the children out to the backyard. Of course I watched for Tigger. I'm holding the baby in front of me...around the waist. The dogs made it out first. Then the toddler. I had the french door opened maybe six inches....about to open it further so the baby and I could slip out~when here comes Tigger~making a break for it.

I reach down (still holding the baby) to grab him....I almost have him by the tail...I mean, I can FEEL his tail slip through my hands.....

and I fall over on my ass.....

On the hard wood floor......

And continue to roll over until I'm almost doing a somersault....

(still holding the baby who never made a sound)

My glasses fly off....

My big, yoga pants clad ass is in the air....

I'm hanging onto that baby...

It had to have been a hilarious sight.

Luckily only the toddler witnessed it.

Tigger was long gone.

Kitchen sneek peek

Just wanted to give y'all a peek of what's
happening with the first floor/kitchen area
of my new little house.

I've got a long way to go.....
but here's a start:


It's hard to tell from the bad lighting,
but this is a new lampshade I bought
from Target.

It's from the Liberty of London collection.

I popped it on my favorite huge gourd lamp from Ballards
It totally changed the look of the lamp.

Love it!

next.....

This is the table and chairs that I bought
at Kudzu Antiques.
I'm really happy with them and will be even
happier when I can get them to my house.


Anybody got a truck?!?!? ;-)

p.s. I'll change the fabric on the chair seats.

8 years ago I would have been thrilled with that toile.

Now? Not so much.

Back to Atlanta tomorrow!!!!

I really ought to.

But I'm tired. (said in my best whiny voice)

And tomorrow is going to be a looooong day.

Mike's daughter is flying into Montgomery ( almost 2 hours from here) from Vegas. She's going to stay for almost a week. (Thanks, Jill!!!!)

Then....after we pick her up, we're driving to Auburn to meet Devon, who will then drive me back to Atlanta (my car is in Atlanta. I've been driving Mike's truck all this time.)

Maybe we'll get back to Atlanta around 8:30 or 9:00 eastern time.

My little house will be dark and cold.

It doesn't matter.

I'm still SO excited.

Can't wait to get back!!!!

The cardiologist said.....

That Mike is in the top tier of post op patients she's had.

She could not get over how good he looks and how well he's doing

(tee hee!)

Seriously.

She went on for about 10 minutes talking about all the things
he's done right and has going for him.

She simply could not get over how well he's doing.

He's lost 23 pounds since his surgery

From eating NOTHING BUT foods like this

(photo taken after last grocery shopping expedition)

The doctor asked him what he'd been eating.

I told her: fresh produce, low sodium, no red meat, etc, etc.

She thanked me for taking such good care of him.

I'm just glad he's doing so well and is expected to make a full recovery. :)

Runnin' around

Like everyone else: so much to do! But I won't bore y'all with all the details. :)


However, on the good news front:

Buster's swelling went down within 30 minutes of taking Benedryl (now known here at casa de Pissy as "the wonder drug that saved us a ginomous vet bill).

Had a glorious, spa pedicure yesterday. YAY! to being pampered! :) (also had brows waxed and bangs trimmed, but I consider that maintenance, rather than pampering)

Appointment this afternoon with Mike's cardiologist. ( First one since his surgery~exciting!)

I'll let y'all know how it goes!!!

Images that make me happy

*sigh*

Things got even more stressful around here this evening when our dog, Buster, got stung by something. Not sure what...we think maybe a bee...as they've been hovering around the upper deck all day.

Right after dinner Buster ran in the house from the patio...raced around the house..all hyper (more than usual) and excited. I noticed he was rubbing his face on all the area rugs and then running around again.

I got him to stop, looked at his face and saw that his eyes were swelling and then noticed that one side of his muzzle was already swollen.

G R E A T.......

Gave him a dose of his prescribed steriods right away and called his vet.

The vet told me to give him 40 mgs of Benedryl.

Of course we didn't have any, so I had to make a trip to Wal-greens to get some.

Came back...dosed him up...got him comfy on the bed....under a fan....with his favorite blanket.

He's resting now and the swelling has gone down, thank goodness!

I felt the need for something cheery to post.

So......here are some pictures I had that I love for one reason or another.

I have a thing for Japanese lanterns.

This is just a happy mailbox.

I would SO wear these if I were 20 years younger.

I'd wear these right now.
I don't care how old I am.

I like this in pink, but I'd really like one in turquoise.


and this picture.....

I find it especially soothing.

I'd like to have a copy of it hanging somewhere so that I could
look at it every day and go to that swirly, floaty, happy place.

No Valium required. ;-)

More words to live by.....

This may be my new mantra.

Even if I don't have a cupcake every time I need to "keep calm"
just thinking it makes me smile.

It's just more fun than

"Keep calm and carry on."

Which I get.

I just like this MUCH better.

Here's what been going on.....

*sigh*

I'm so tired....just the thought of writing everything down makes me more tired.

Does that make sense?

As y'all know, I came to Alabama for Mike's surgery on February 24th. What y'all didn't know was that prior to the medical emergency, I had plans to move from my apartment to an awesome carriage house on March 1st.

Yep, 5 days after Mike's surgery I had to move. I had already signed the lease, given notice at my apartment.....had utilities scheduled to be switched over, movers coming.....all on on March 1st. While I was there at the hospital with Mike, I went over this situation in my mind every way I knew how. Move? Don't move? Could I get out of my lease? Did I want to get out of the new lease? How much would all of this cost me? Could I afford it? How would I do it? What about the boys (dogs)?

Oh! and I was also scheduled to start working full time for one of my clients (nanny job) on March 7th for one month and then go to 20 hours a week after that. So I had that on my mind too....how to make that work. Telling the family the situation...and while I knew they'd understand, I had JUST accepted the job with them and they had JUST let their other nanny go. Need I say "sleepless nights"? On top of being extremely concerned about Mike's health, I also had all these major life changes going on in my own life...in another city....4 1/2 hours away. So many decisions and arrangements to make!

Keep in mind that while we were waiting for the surgery to be performed, Mike and I discussed all this. He wanted me to go ahead and move. He knew I'd found the perfect place. He knew I had this job lined up. He knew he would only need me for a few weeks, etc. He didn't want me to change any of my plans.

Mike's sister offered to help with his care. Mike's daughter offered to come from Vegas for a week to help out. His son said he could come for a few days. While this was all wonderful and appreciated, I couldn't figure out a way to fill the gaps between the times they could be here.

Finally, after much mental anguish on my part...I can to the only conclusion that made sense to me: I'd have to come to Alabama for a month to provide care for Mike. I say a month, because he will see his surgeon after 4 weeks and should be permitted to travel then. So if he's not able to stay alone, he could come to Atlanta with me or to his sister's house near Birmingham.

On Friday the 26th, I started making calls, sending faxes, verifying times....all having to do with my move from the apartment to the carriage house and related to my job(s) (I had been working for two families before Mike's surgery). I would move on the first and Mike's sister would come here to bring him home from the hospital and stay two days while I made my move to the carriage house.

On Saturday the 27th Mike's best friend came to pick up a bag I'd packed for Mike (still in the hospital) , then the boys and I made the drive to Atlanta in Mike's truck. I'd never traveled with alone with the boys. They were so well behaved~thank goodness!

I made the trip in a little over 4 hours.....stopping once for gas and to let the boys out. Once in Atlanta, I went straight to Devon's house to drop off the boys. They'd stay at her house (a mile away from my apartment) while I was packing/moving. I'd come back at night to spend the nights there because I didn't want the boys to disturb anyone ( besides me! ;-) ) So Saturday and Sunday I packed. And packed. And packed some more. Ended up with about 15 good sized boxes.

Monday, March 1st the movers arrived at 1 p.m. sharp. There were three of them and they moved me in less than 2 hours. It was amazing to watch! I should tell y'all that the carriage house I've moved into is only two houses away from my former apartment. The movers brought a 26 foot truck with them. Wouldn't fit in the driveway of the house, so they ended up walking my stuff down to the house and moving what they could in the back of Mike's truck. It was pretty comical to see. I spent those 2 hours running back and forth between my apartment and the house....making sure things went where they needed to go...because....drum roll please: the carriage house is two stories! With a deck on the second floor! I'll have to do an entire post on the carriage house itself when I have the energy.

After the movers left, I collapsed for a couple of hours...then went back and started unpacking. Then that evening Devon and I went back to the house (again) and arranged all the furniture and unpacked some boxes (Thanks, Dev!).

Tuesday was a miserable day weather-wise. Still I went back and unpacked all the rest of the boxes in the upstairs living space and did some work on the old apartment in preparation for turning the key over to the property manager.

Wednesday I finally finished getting everything out of the old apartment (plants, cleaning supplies, curtain rods) and moved a big, round coffee table to the place (again: thanks, Dev!). Got all my stuff together (I'd been living in 3 places, basically) and got ready to make the trip back to Alabama Thursday morning.

I arrived back in Enterprise Thursday, March 4th. Mike's sister had been taking such good care of him. I can never thank her enough. Since Thursday, I've been here trying to catch my breath and rest a little while taking care of Mike, getting the house straightened up, doing laundry, etc.

Y'all...I'm exhausted. I forgot to mention that the entire time I was in Atlanta with the boys, Buster woke me up every few hours every night. So I never got a full nights sleep while I was there. That's tough on an old broad like me, let me tell ya!

The great news is that Mike is doing well with his recovery. I'm very proud of him and how he's handling it. He wants to get better and has a positive attitude. That makes me happy for him.

I know that things will get better for me physically. I'll get rested and start feeling like a human being again (rather than a zombie) and we'll get into a routine. Next week Mike can start taking little walks outdoors and maybe we can have some short outings.

OK.....there's more, but it's time time to fix Mike's lunch.

Besides....if you're still reading; I'm sure you're bored enough.

I miss everyone and hope you're all doing well.

Thanks so much for your supportive comments and well wishes for Mike. I truly appreciate them :)