jeannee

Musing (only one today) of the day...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:54:28 GMT

I wonder if I'll get anymore texts now that baseball season is over.

I am too old...

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:15:57 GMT

to have days like this.

Finally.

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:30:05 GMT

Justin came home from the hospital yesterday. He smiled a LOT when he first came into the house... then he slept a lot... and then he laughed a lot at my mom and me when we tried to figure out how to feed him with his tube last night. He's not supposed to be that with it and aware, but he even laughed at my dad's corny joke about bolus feeding being a bowl-less feeding.

I'm glad he's home.

There's a tube...

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:45:05 GMT

They surgery went well today... Justin's tube is a lot higher up on his abdomen than most that I've seen. That's probably why they couldn't find his stomach through the normal scope method that they tried yesterday. He doesn't do so great when he gets a general anesthesia... his blood pressure dropped and stayed too low for them to really give him any pain meds after his surgery. So he spent most of the morning/afternoon crying until he fell asleep. But at least it's over and done with.. I think they'll try to feed him through the tube a couple of times tomorrow and as long as that goes well, then *maybe* he'll get to go home tomorrow afternoon or Saturday morning.

Ugh.

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:11:10 GMT

So Justin was supposed to have a feeding tube inserted today. But, things didn't work out so well and the doctor wasn't able to do the procedure (insert lighted scope through the mouth, down the esophagus, into the stomach, see the light come through the stomach and insert need through the abdominal wall toward the light, then insert feeding tube). Apparently, the doctor was never able to see the light shine through Justin's skin... could mean that his stomach just isn't in the expected place because he doesn't walk or move around much and/or he's got a curved spine that's pushing things around a bit. At any rate, Justin had to endure a lot of needle pokes into his abdomen for no good reason today. This made for a very not happy Justin. He cried most of the time that I visited him today in between classes. Tomorrow, a surgeon will come and do a bit of laproscopic surgery, look around inside of his abdomen, find his stomach, push it up toward the abdominal wall, and then the doctor who tried today will hopefully find his stomach and insert the feeding tube. That means full, general anesthesia for Justin tomorrow... it's a bit scary. Last time he had surgery it took a long time for him to recovery from the anesthesia because they couldn't raise his body temperature back up to normal levels.. Hopefully, things will go well tomorrow and he'll be home for the weekend.

It's been a hectic week.

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:44:04 GMT

My cat was in the kitty hospital for 3 days for some mysterious coulda-been-an-injury-but-we're-not-really-sure illness. He's finally back home, but has lost a lot of weight, gotten saggy skin, and has weird shaven parts and still doesn't look quite like himself yet.

I was sick for a month. I'm mostly better now, but everyone else who's gotten sick since me is blaming me for passing along the plague to them. My mom, Frankie, and Frank have all been in various stages of the sick, but it at least seems as if they all got better much more quickly than I did.

But Justin's been admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. I'm sure it's probably all related to the sick the rest of us have had... He woke up sick on Thursday, went to the doctor's Thursday morning. He doesn't like to drink or eat when he's sick, so it's nearly impossible to get any sort of medication in him that will make him feel better. That means no antibiotics, no pain-relievers, and no keep-the-seizures-away meds. By Friday night he was horribly miserable, and so were we since we couldn't figure out how to make him feel better. He was also having seizures since the fever and lack of meds were screwing with his brain chemistry. My parents took him to the emergency room Friday night. He was admitted to the hospital a few hours later. My parents stayed with him and after I got the foster boys to my nanny's for the day, I went to the hospital to spend the day there with him. Jeannine's spending the night so that we can all come home and get some good sleep.

Hopefully he'll be home soon.

Happy Birthday to me....

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:47:39 GMT

Today's my birthday and I fully intended to go out tonight and have a free party while watching the Orpheus parade down near the French Quarter. But then I got sick and lost my voice and officially just wanted to sleep sleep sleep. So that's what I've done for most of the afternoon and evening. I fully intend to get back to the sleeping as soon as I post this.

Yesterday, my aunt and uncle invited us all over to their house and cooked us up some barbeque to celebrate all of the February birthdays in our family. That was a loooong day. Today, I was going to go get my free birthday steak at the restaurant near here... even went so far as to go to the restaurant before I found out that they don't open until 3pm. Apparently that only happens M-Th... I went there a couple of weeks ago with my dad for lunch so I didn't even think about checking their hours. So... no free birthday steak for me 'cause all of our babysitting services were set up to end at 2pm.

My make-me-feel-better-meds are kicking in now, which means I'll be completely knocked out in about ten minutees. Happy happy sleep time. :)

Someday...

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:38:52 GMT

I'll have enough time to post here and actually talk to the people that I like.

Last night I dreamt about getting hugged. Is it sad that one of the nicest dreams I've had a looong time just involved me getting a hug? I am so starved for attention... or maybe it's just some comforting that I want. The last time I dreamed about getting hugs I was in the middle of a month long Hurricane Katrina evacuation and had no idea what life would be like.. every night for weeks I dreamt about getting these wonderfully comforting hugs that didn't ever seem to end.

I laughed a lot this week about Wong Workers and Affle Ho's.

And, I missed Marc Broussard in concert.

And, I'm so far behind in my work I wonder if I'll ever catch up.

Ouch.

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:29:20 GMT

Figuring out tax stuff makes my head hurt. A lot.

There's not enough sleep.

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:43:19 GMT

I want more sleep. Lots more sleep. It's only the second day of the semester... I shouldn't be this tired yet. But Josh's car isn't working, so we're having to wait around for each other to finish classes. That means lots of early mornings and late evenings. I really just want about eight hours of sleep though. That seems like a really nice amount of sleep.

Went to my math methods class today. I really liked the teacher, but there's an insane amount of work to get done for that class I actually passed on going to eat dinner with Tiff and Aaron tonight 'cause I already had too much work to do. Looks like there are people in my group for the class who will actually be nice to work with, so that's always a plus.

I'm going to bed now.

Blah.

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:48:22 GMT

Classes for the Spring semester start in the morning. I'm feeling cheated out of my holiday... I honestly thought I had another week to go before classes started. I need more rest! I've had a horrible migraine today... it's no wonder that all I've felt like doing today is sleeping. I'm scheduled for 18 hours this spring, but I do believe I'll be dropping that down to 15. 5 classes seems like more than enough, no?

I've got a new laptop sitting on the floor next to me. It was punishment to myself that I couldn't play with my new toy until I had officially cleaned and organized my horrible mess of a room. It's all done (except for the closet, which can wait until next weekend), but I'm so tired now that it seems like entirely too much effort to go about properly appreciating my new toy. I reckon it'll have to wait until tomorrow when I get home from my classes.

Quick Quick Quick

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 04:53:54 GMT

Seems like I haven't posted since before we left for Florida... so here's a quick update.

Epcot was lots of fun with surprisingly yummy food.
Jake qualified for Nationals.
Josh qualified for Nationals *and* Worlds! Woot!
Finished all my finals. Got all A's.
Watched snow.. that's right SNOW... fall in New Orleans.
Took lots of pictures.
Watched the temperatures climb back to 79.
Baked lots of cookies.
Spent lots of money.
Wrapped lots of presents.
Unwrapped lots of presents.
Justin got sick.
Parents and Justin in Emergency Room for most of Christmas Day.
Nothing horribly wrong but still a sick Justin.
Rough Christmas Day.
Better Christmas Night.
Barbara and Tiff and Aaron visited and stole presents.

That's all for now.

So...

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:23:44 GMT

We're supposed to leave tomorrow to go to Florida. Justin woke up sick this morning.. it's really horrible when he's sick 'cause he has no idea why he feels like crap and can't breathe and therefore chokes and vomits everytime he tries to eat. Also, as of 10 this morning, my mom still had no confirmation on whether or not there's someone willing to do respite for the foster boys. We can't afford to pay for the extra hotel room it would take to sleep 7 of us instead of having the five of us in one room as planned... and my mom's program is supposed to pay other ppl in the program to take care of the kids when we need a bit of a break. So all last night and all this morning my mom kept saying, "See? I don't know why I plan to do anything! I never get to go!" I suppose I'll know by tonight what's really going to happen.

I had four final projects due yesterday. I had a math test this morning. I have a final in a couple of hours. Next week (hopefully after I get back from Florida) I have a math final on Monday, two final projects due Tuesday, an English final to take before Friday, and a final English paper to write before Friday, too. Then, it's drinking at Tiff's house.

It's always good to have a plan, no? ;)

Just because...

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:42:16 GMT

I decided to post here, just because I have fifty thousand other things to do that are more important than this. I am nothing if not a procrastinator.

This has been a very busy semester. I've done over sixty hours of field experience that haven't been part of my regular class schedule. Let me just say that takes up a HUGE chunk of time. For the most part, I've really liked the students and classes I've worked with this go 'round. That's not always the case.

Josh and Jake are dancing at the Oireachtas in Orlando this weekend. I'm stealing away with everyone 'cause Ms. Chris is going to take care of Justin for us for four whole days. She is the bestest ever.

I'm going to Epcot on Friday. I'm hoping this will be fun.

I'm going to be in a gigantic hotel ballroom on Saturday. I'm hoping this means I'll be in Philadelphia at Easter-time 'cause at least one of my brothers will have qualified to dance at World's.

I'm going to go take a shower now. I'm hoping this means I will have calmed down from my slightly panicked how-the-hell-will-i-get-everything-done-before-next-friday mode so that I can actually get some work done.

For any of you paying attention...

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:19:22 GMT

It will come as no great surprise that I"m about to run (or more accurately: drive) as far away from Gustav as I can get in the next few hours. Hopefully, it'll all be for nothing. The all-for-nothings are, of course, the best sort of evacuations. Today has been an extremely stressful day. I was in the car driving around town in loads of traffic trying to get things done... and most of it wasn't even for me. Big surprise, eh?

Classes started for me this week. I've already been told by all my teachers that just because the university is shut down until next Thursday doesn't mean I don't have any work due before then. Apparently, having survived Katrina means we're never again going to be given any free hurricane days. But at least they closed campus... I won't actually be counted as absent just cause I had sense enough to get out of the way of torrential rains and 100mph winds.

I suspect tomorrow will be quite a long day. Let's hope I'm wrong.

Who Knew?

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:28:45 GMT

I am in need of adult entertainment.

Wasting Time.

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:53:04 GMT

I don't feel as if I got anything accomplished this weekend. I was quite sick for most of it, though, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Tiff got to take care of me for most of Saturday... We had planned to go to the movies and Sam's and then do some organizing of all her school papers. I had already started feeling really icky, though, so we skipped the movies. Then we went to her house and she made some really good chicken soup for me and then she let me sit around on her sofa all afternoon and evening doing absolutely nothing! I must have been running a fever, cause I was absolutely freezing (which is totally unlike me). I'm still all stuffy and sound funny and can't really breathe well, but I feel about a thousand times better than I did on Saturday. If I'm ever sick again, I'm going back to Tiff's! I never get to rest around my house if I'm sick. Who knew that resting while you're sick actually makes you feel better faster? ;)

Last week I had some really horrendous tests to take on Wednesday. I knew there were a few questions on my astronomy test that I wasn't sure about.. and I also worried I did badly on that test 'cause while I was taking it, I was already worrying about the Children's Lit test I had to take later in the day. I got the results for the astro test back. I made a 98, which is just freakin' awesome. I'm stilly worrying about the Children's Lit test, though. It was all essay and short answer. There were 7 questions on the test. After an hour (and we had an extended class period of an hour and a half to finish the test), I had only fully answered one question and was halfway through the second. In the last twenty minutes or so, I answered the last five questions that were still worth half of the points on the test. Honestly, I wrote 8 pages (back and front) in that hour and a half, but the last three or four pages just look like a stack of notes I would have taken during lecture. I completely ran out of time to answer things with complete sentences so I was just dropping phrases onto the paper. I don't have high hopes that I made an A on that test even though everyone else I talked to said they had the same problems trying to finish the test. I'm hoping we get those papers back today, too. I'm ready to stop worrying about it.

I'm really tired.

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:47:56 GMT

At about 4 AM this morning I woke up because there was some really severe thunder and lightning and rain pouring down outside. I tried to go back to sleep, then I started to hear a loud whooshing wind sound. But instead of stopping, like gusting wind usually does, the sound just got louder and closer. And then louder and closer still. And then I realized I was hearing a tornado outside. Then I tried to scoot out of my bed, to get out of my bedroom without actually putting myself closer to the window. Then a bright blue white light lit up the window from outside. And instead of flashing from dim to bright, as lightning usually does, it just got brighter and brighter and my television (which was off), was turned on by all the extra power from the lightning that I realized was hitting the house or the tree that was right outside my bedroom window. I made it into the hallway before I heard a really loud cracking sound. Then there was a loud boom and the house shook. I went to wake up my parents, but they were already getting up because they'd heard the tornado sounds, too. My mom says I yelled, 'Something exploded in the backyard!" By the time we made it back to the den, Jake had jumped out of bed, too, along with my Aunt Marlene. We peeked out the back door and saw that half of the tree had fallen. Luckily, it just scraped the corner of the house and crashed onto and smashed the corner of the roof.. The longest portion fell to the side of the house near the boys' window and the short portion stopped just short of my bedroom window. The only damage we could find inside the house were some cracks that were a couple of feet long. Those are inside the boys' closet.

There's a lot of damage throughout our neighborhood. Our tree broke in half and fell down, someone else had a tall palm tree snap in half. Lots of mailboxes are gone. Garage doors are bent at really weird angles. Trampolines are on top of roofs or thrown across the street. Siding is off of houses all up and down the streets. Lots of roofing shingles came loose and some fences fell down or were completely ripped apart. Our bench ended up a couple of streets away. My car, the van, and our garage door were completely covered in tiny, ripped up pieces of leaves.

All day long, the meteorologists kept saying it was just straight line wind damage, but I reckon enough people were reporting tornado damage that they national weather service finally sent someone out to investigate. The rotation hadn't shown up on radar and we weren't even under a tornado watch at the time the tornado hit, but on the 6pm news they admitted it was an F1 tornado with a path that was 3.1 miles long and 20 yards wide. I didn't see a map of the path, but I'm assuming our house/neighborhood was on it. It was a puny little thing to be sure, in terms of tornadoes, but any weather related issues seem to be too much to deal with since Katrina. The quotes for clearing up the tree mess? About $4000. We can't even really assess the roof damage until the tree is gone. The insurance adjuster should be out tomorrow.

It may seem big

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:17:00 GMT

2008 03 19 009, originally uploaded by illnevergetthis.

But this is all that's left of our old oak tree. It will soon be cut down, because there's a large gaping wound on the opposite side. Before 4:10AM, it was twice this big.

This is not ours.

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:15:41 GMT

2008 03 19 016, originally uploaded by illnevergetthis.

But, it was in our yard. Picked up, over that fence. By wind. It's made out of iron.

A smashed in roof.

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:14:49 GMT

2008 03 19 026, originally uploaded by illnevergetthis.

Right there. Above my bedroom.

A really big tree.

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:14:00 GMT

2008 03 19 045, originally uploaded by illnevergetthis.

Next to a really big dad.

There's a tree on my roof!

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:13:14 GMT

2008 03 19 028, originally uploaded by illnevergetthis.

Not Good.

I Saw The Bubble Man!

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:20:12 GMT

Actually, it's Mr. Michael "I'm a slimeball" Buble, but Aaron calls him the bubble man. I've had a migraine since Saturday and Tiff's been sick with strep throat since Sunday... soooo.. I really wasn't prepared to go and have a good time at this concert. But my headache slipped away about 4 this afternoon.. and Tiffany didn't sound like she was dead or dying, so we went to scrunch ourselves into some itty bitty little chairs at the top of the New Orleans Arena. I had a really good time. Who knew the Bubble Man went into music so he'd have a venue for his comedy routine? He was extremely funny.. and the opening act was really interesting. I think they were called Natural Seven. I'll have to look them up later.

I have TWO major tests tomorrow. I didn't get all the studying done that I wanted to do... but my taxes are done, I found cheaper car insurance, I studied for about three hours, I went to a really great concert, *and* my migraine is gone. So all in all, it was a really good day. I was planning on studying some more tonight, but I think trying to get some sleep now will be a better idea. I've got about an hour and a half to study again with Barbara before the first test tomorrow.

Only three more to go.

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:13:16 GMT

It's time for finals. I've got three more to go in the next 36 hours and then I get to rest. And by rest, I mean put up a Christmas tree, test out some cookie recipes, bake and send lots of cookies, wrap all the presents that have overtaken my room, and do a lot of tutoring. This semester has worn me out and made me feel as if I haven't really spent any time actually getting anything done. I think I may take one less class next semester than I did this semester. I like sleep. I really do. And I want to get more of it. Which means I need to turn off the computer now, 'cause I have a final at 7:30AM, and I'd like a bit of sleep before that time rolls around, too.