Fungus amongus

We've been sick here in the Rogers house. It all started with a little bug bite on my ankle one morning, mid-October, when I woke up. It was the kind that I scratched the hell out of (it even bled a little) and then never bothered with it again. Well, a couple days later it was starting to look like a pimple or an ingrown hair. Then I made the mistake of shaving over it --- stupid!!! Within 10 days, it had gotten to be a red spot the size of a quarter and had that distinct circular ring shape. Yep, I have Tinea corporis, aka ringworm! I had been suspecting it for about a week, even before the ring shape developed and had been treating with miconozole (which I knew from my previous pregnancy was safe for topical fungal/yeast treatment) but it wasn't helping and now my legion was hurting.

Liam developed one ring spot on the back of his leg just before Halloween. We stopped by Target on November 1st and asked the pharmacist (they're great people, they know their shit, use them as a resource). She suggested clortrimozole; apply 2x daily like the package says. Well, my legion started to go away right away and is now practically gone. Two weekends later and Liam's spot is bigger and looks, to quote my husband, "angry." Over the weekend, we also noticed that Poppy has a bald spot on her ear and it's inflamed. Monday night Jon emails a photo to the doc; Tuesday found us racing to catch the last appointment.

Doc looks at both legions and says "yup it's ringworm." But apply 4x daily and expect it to take 4-6 weeks to clear up. Has to do with the compromised immune system of children. Add to that we've had head colds and mild congestion the last week and then I mentioned that Liam's cradle-cap is back. "Yup, more evidence of immature immune system. Perfectly normal."

How did I get it? you ask. Well, my coworker (and landlord's girlfriend) had a major outbreak of ringworm in her house this summer. I then roomed with her on a business trip while she was treating it. Any physical contact with her or her things could have caused it. But that was August!!! you exclaim. Yes, but ringworm is a fungus and can live dormant for a long time. I basically gave it to my cat, who gave it back to me, and that fateful morning I scratched that bug bite until it hurt-so-good I transferred it back from my hand (and the cat) to my leg.

As for treating the cat . . . the same clortrimozole cream on her ear a couple times a day. Rub it in really good so she licks as little as possible off. Her ear already looks better in the last couple days.

Stay healthy!

Couple of triumphs today. 1) started a calligraphy project with my 7th graders; they like it. 2) just wrote a great letter to help a friend's son start K early

4-day weekend (day 4)

Well, tomorrow it's back to the grind. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to it. Taking 4 days in a row with my guys has been wonderful and I am definitely not looking forward to 3 weeks off at Christmas for the very same reason. I already feel like I'm scrambling even though I made the decision to take it slow and steady with the medieval/Renaissance Europe studies. We're a little over 1 week into it and already I feel like I'm running out of time. I think part of it is because of the Thanksgiving holiday coming up in 7 school days. Then after that there's only 3 weeks before the end of the Quarter. The medieval festival is scheduled for the last Thursday in February and I'm already freaking out. I'm terrified of failing. That's a struggle I've always had. I try to be perfect in all things (or at least give the appearance that I'm living a Mary Poppins life "practically perfect in every way"). And I'm terrified that the festival will sink and the parents and people of my district will cluck their tongues and say behind their hands "See, we always knew she couldn't do anything good." I never feel like I'm good enough.

So, I'll be giving a quiz this next week and then I want to spend 3 days doing an art project. That's something I've been trying to add more into my curriculum this year. I don't know if the kids appreciate it. I'm sure they hate that I have to have a lesson plan for it, a reason for why. Anyway, I was hoping to illuminate nursery rhymes and teach them some basic calligraphy. But of course, I can't afford calligraphy pens. Maybe I can go buy some chisel tipped markers and get the school to reimburse me.

I also want to try to come up with some crafts for the boys' room, like maybe some name letters to hang on the wall. I have tons of scrap booking paper. I suppose I should go look at it. Oh, btw, this is the bedding I mentioned yesterday that I totally have fallen in love with. Jon and I don't think it's too girlie especially since we're going to go with a courtly/knightly theme for the boys room. (Another hint, it has stuck in our brains lately that Baby "B" be named for dragons - No, I'm not naming him Gorbash or Breagh or Srumgl.) Only trouble is that it is only available through JCPenney right now. I can't find an eBay or Amazon sale on it for the life of me.

Just trying out my SMS featureto post from my phone.

4-day weekend (day 3)

It's been pretty uneventful today. I never got back last night to update at the end of day 2, but it was bad for Jon. :( Poor guy seemed to have picked up a mild case of food poisoning on top of the cold that the family is sharing. His tummy was bothering him all day and he was beat-up exhausted. He threw up 3 bites into dinner, and that was after sleeping for about a 6 hour nap. That was the second time he vomited yesterday too. I'm trying to decide if my new meds are keeping me up or knocking me out. Just need to figure out when to take them. Liam was adorable all day yesterday and we enjoyed a super long, hot shower to try and break up our phlegm before he went to bed (I think that worked).

Today I sat my ass on the couch for the majority of the day. It was nice to sleep in until 7am (yeah, I know, but that's sleeping in for a teacher). I would love to say I'll make Jon get up tomorrow, but I do actually enjoy waking up at 5:30 on weekends now . . . it's the only me alone time I get and I usually catch up on my girly television shows like ANTM and Gossip Girl and 90210.

I started to think of some Christmas crafting ideas I'd like to do. But who am I kidding. We have NO $$$. Last night Mom and I talked for a little bit and I agreed to make green bean casserole and a sugar-free apple pie for Thanksgiving (which will be on Friday this year as my mom is working on Thursday). Then I got to thinking about the bedding set I really want for the new little one, but how it's damned expensive (my mom got Liam's bedding at a garage sale for $25!) and then I really want to decorate their room in castles and dragons and knights but there's nothing like that for kids right now - poo!

Liam was super chatty and rather cuddly today which leads me to believe that his cold is affecting him. He's never been sick-sick and we are so very thankful for that, especially since I work in a school and my students are ALWAYS full of snot and coughs and gross (they're 12). I made pot roast for dinner. It wasn't much work; I got one of those bag-n-season kits. Then I threw together a little roux and made a kick-ass gravy (because *horn toot* I'm awesome at gravy). Liam didn't eat much which is his modus operandi lately. But he drank a lot of juice and milk all day so he might have been full of liquid.

Now, Jon and I are hanging here while he gets some MAN TV time and watches a MMA fight. I played a little Puccini on the piano and finally figured out why I was having to read bass clef (it's my cello book for Puccini - did you know I used to play cello . . . and was a well-trained mezzo-soprano, and am self-taught on piano *toot toot*). We cranked on the pellet stove for the first time this season and now have learned that our cat Lily is completely fascinated by the stove. She has been sitting in front of it since I left the room and turned the light off. Although she did stop for a few moments because I think she was embarrassed that I got the camera out to catalog her looniness. So far, we're liking the thing and I hope it helps us keep cozy this winter (of course, we won't be using it until we get a cage to put around it or the toddler is in bed).

4-day weekend (day 2)

So far the day has been pretty uneventful. I got up and went into work (yeah that's right, my school did NOT have the day after a Thursday holiday off) just to set up for my substitute. Then I came back home. Hubster wasn't feeling too well which is sad because he'd been doing better than I for the last couple of days. He's been back in bed since I got home (around 2 1/2 hours now - note for long though because Liam just ran through the house yelling "daddy daddy dah dah dad" - look out Jon). So I've done a little laundry, updated my blog, played with my kid, facebooked a lot. Got hungry early since I didn't have my normal protein shake at breakfast so I ate around 10:30. Let me tell you it's hard to find something with enough protein when you can't afford the extra protein the new diet requires. Life would be so much easier if I weren't such a picky eater. Here's some adorable snaps of my 27 month old "helping" me with laundry.

He's totally into saying "cheese" now and trying to smile for the camera. So that leaves us with growly-faced smiles. These were totally not posed by the way. He parked his butt into my laundry to watch Elmo.

4-day weekend (day 1)

Warning LONG!

Today is Veterans Day so we have a crazy holiday in the middle of the week. Too bad students, you have to be back tomorrow. I originally scheduled a prenatal appointment with my nurse practitioner for tomorrow morning and then decided I would take ALL of Friday off instead of just a half-day. The original plan was to pawn the spawn off on someone else and take a little extended weekend with the Hubster. Well money's tight, that didn't work out. Then yesterday, I finally get around to checking my voicemail and find out my appointment on Friday has been canceled and I need to reschedule. Eek!!!

Well, guess what. The doc's office is open on Veterans Day and my actual Ob/Gyn had an opening. So I saw her today instead. Took some pics of my 20w belly to post up on Facebook for everyone (sorry about the blurry one with Liam, it was too cute though).

There was a new nurse taking my BP and checking my weight (oh yeah, still 1 lb under my first weight for this pregnancy - nothing like a carb-starvation diet!). She was awesome. While wrapping my arm with the BP cuff, she stops and exclaims "you have the most beautiful face!" Awwwww. Love her, she's my new favorite nurse!

The rest of the day . . . not so awesome. Turned into an emotional, blubbering mess with my doctor and all this just managed to triple the amount of snot coming out of my already rhinopharyngitis-y face (common cold). Gonna try going on some meds to help me manage life. It was either that or consider going on medical disability and ummmmm, that's not gonna pay the bills. Her first response was "can you quit your job?" Don't I wish. We'll give this about 6 weeks and see how I'm doing. Basically, the risks of medication to Baby "B" are far outweighed by the risks of momma being overwhelmed emotionally and financially strapped and stressed out. Yup. I'm a mess.

Then tried to go to JoAnn's to see if anything caught my eye (not that I could afford it). It was mobbed because, oh yeah, it was a holiday. I had a coughing fit in the middle of the store that was so bad I was gagging. I had no more tissues because I blew through them all in the doc's office. I had to race out to the car where, yet again, I had no tissues. I spent 5 minutes in the parking lot coughing and blowing my nose on a flyer for Woodland Community College. Let's just add to all this embarrassment the fact that I'm basically incontinent because I've had one child and never bothered to do kegel exercises last time or this.

WARNING IT GETS RANT-Y HERE!!!
I stopped at Target to get a few items we needed (like COFFEE FILTERS) and bought a box of tissues for the car. What should have been 5 minutes in-and-out turned into an ordeal as the gal in front of me turned out to be buying with an EBT card. Ugh, and her foodstamps card didn't swipe. So they checker had to ring her through like 3x before he finally got a manager. All the while, I'm miserable and just want to drive the 75 minutes home (or at least blow my nose again) and I notice that she's got a new Blackberry, a new purse, and basically appears like she's abusing the government assistance. This just serves to make me more mad about the fact that we can't get on WIC or foodstamps because I make too damned much money in gross but no one ever pays attention to the fact that my share of health insurance is 1/3 or my monthly check. We never make it through the month and haven't for 18 months now. I friggin' use birthday money to buy groceries or pay for electricity. And to top it all off . . . SHE WAS A HAIR TWIRLER! ugh >:(

Oh, I stopped by Chic-fil-a for the first time on the way home. It was decent, but I still like Carl's Jr. burgers better.