and she's off!

B is back! He made it home without incident, although I must say, he is awfully skinny!! I guess he must have looked that way when he left, but it's shocking nonetheless. He went from being a round baby to a thinner child to a chubby cheeked steroid ten year old to a gradual transformation into what his father must have looked like at this age - a walking stick. We go to the doctor in a week for his annual check-up so that will be interesting. Last year he was 64 inches and about 105 pounds. I wouldn't be surprised if the 105 were still the case, just stretched out over a few more inches!

But he had a great whirlwind trip to the west coast. They didn't waste much of the time being idle!

And now M is milling about and packing for her trip to the meet. Kevin will go down and stay at a cousin's, caring for her ailing dog while leaving me to care for ours. M will stay with the team at the hotel, and they will all see each other at the pool. I'll be working although for the first three days the office will be quiet, with most of the workers out at the annual meeting. I'll watch M swim on the computer from there, and B will be doing a four day camp at the tennis academy.

Meanwhile, on the college front, things could get interesting or fizzle after this meet. M has had a couple of impressive calls this week, and she has been invited to an official weekend visit by one of the coaches. She had a fun run of lifeguard tournaments, and she did an ocean swim yesterday and was the first female finisher. She didn't ask her coach if it was OK, but of course he found out, he knows people everywhere, and she was worried about going to practice tonight but he didn't give her a hard time at all, just teased her a little and then said he heard she went really fast. So we'll see!

As for Kevin, he is on vacation starting now, for two weeks. He'll go to the meet with M, and then when he gets back, he'll spend some time with B. I, of course, will work. Although M and I may take another college-visiting jaunt later in the week up to Boston. It won't be long, possibly just one overnight.

And in other news, Molly continues her ups and downs with Cushings. I had her retested and she was still very low, so now she is still on the prednisone and will be retested in another month or so. But I'm not really sure what is going on because she peed on the floor in our room last night. So today I didn't give her the prednisone in the morning and she was lethargic and didn't eat again. Go figure. We gave her a whole pill then and she rebounded and came for a walk with us after the rain cooled things down. So it's one day at a time.

and he's off!!

So here I am, just me, PomPom and the cats. M is still up in bed, but she will soon get up to go do an ocean swim/run this morning. Kevin and B are on their way to the airport to catch B's 7:45am flight!!! I can't even believe it. He's all packed up, I got him two new bathing suits yesterday and tried to help him but he was very insistent that he must do all of these things by himself. He didn't want Kevin to get a gate pass and walk him to the gate, but he might not get that wish. I don't think either Kevin or I want him roaming the airport alone at 6am. His plane should land just before 11, so that's 2 for us. I'll try to keep busy all morning!

Molly continues to swing back and forth between lethargy and panting/drinking episodes. She pees on the floor if we leave her too long. I was supposed to start her back on the maintenance medicine this week, but I think I'll have them do that two hour test one more time, only because she still isn't really eating and she is wasting away to skin and bones rapidly. The drinking is a sign of Cushing's, and the lethargy is a sign of Addison's, so it seems strange to me that she would have both. The not eating indicates Addison's as well, but the drinking and peeing confuse that for me. I joined an online list about it, but all they really did was insist that my doctor wasn't treating her properly, so I can't ask them anything because all they do is tell me to go to another vet.

And with M, she is so busy that it makes my head spin. Between work and swimming and tournaments, there just is no time for anything! Yesterday she complained at dinner that her back hurt, this after she told me that she and another small girl tried to drag the lifeguard stand by themselves until two regular dudes on the beach came along and helped them. I am going to try to impress upon her that this is not a good idea!! And as far as the schools go, I guess we're in a lull. A couple of new schools have called, but they're not really schools she has interest in, and she hasn't had the chance to call them back yet, since she got her big Locks of Love haircut on Friday in her spare time. She sent off all her scores and info to most of them, so now we're just waiting to see what (if anything) they'll do, and we're planning a revisit to Boston in August.

And in other news, one thing I am missing this summer is my weekday beach time. Working every day has taken that from me! Although I am home in time to get down there by mid-afternoon some days, most of the time I am either too tired, have somewhere else to be, or don't get out in time to come home and pick up B and then head down. And the beach club can be so crowded on the weekends that it's barely worth going there when we have a nice quiet pool in the backyard. Also, having seen all these beautiful town beaches within a half hour's drive, I can't believe we spent so much time sitting on the dirty dingy one we belong to while the kids were little. These other ones are so much nicer and more kid-friendly because of the way the waves break and the ocean floor slopes. (ie not straight down like at our beach!)

And I guess that's about it for now.

long overdue: rain, sharks, college, work

The above about sums it all up. I have neglected the blog again, it is true. I'd promise to be better but I can't say for sure. There are so many minor distractions that I often just feel too tired to think too hard. This past weekend, my usual updating time, was spent at a swim meet. (Well, only in the evenings, but the days were spent rushing around because the evenings were to be lost).

Anyway, it rained!!! It didn't rain for weeks and then rained buckets on the night of the concert for which I had bought three tickets three months ago, which M took for herself and two friends. And it rained on the day when B said he would want to go to the beach. And it is raining again right now.

M said she had a lot of fun at work today. They swam out to the buoys, they played in the surf, and they paddled in the pond. People were getting stuck in the currents but there were no major mishaps. Half the day was somewhat sunny down there. But the scary part is the sharks! More seen just to the south. It's frightening. People claim to have seen them all up and down, but only a couple have made the news, and they try to downplay the ones that do. With all of these tournaments, they're way out there. And I thought the currents were going to be my major source of anxiety this summer!

As for college, it's the same old game. Trying to provide them with what they ask for, but not getting exactly the right documents from the school. Of course, I have sent whatever I can to the admissions offices, but the coaches want separate copies. I'd pay and have them sent if I could, but there is no code for that!

And the sadness again is Molly, who continues to deteriorate. She has been swinging back and forth between her panting and drinking episodes and her lying around motionless events. She falls down when she stands up because her legs are too weak to support her, especially on the ceramic tile. I cut the fur around her pads tonight so hopefully that will help her. Once she's up and walking, she does OK. Why is this always such a slow and helpless process with these pets? Most of the time, she still seems ok, just resting.

So that is about it for the 'big' news. In other news, B prepares for his west coast trip, which is to begin in just four days!!! I cannot believe it. His new shoes came yesterday (I ordered them online) and he has his fancy haircut. All we have to do is get him packed up and get his documents in order. I can't believe he's really going.

independence day

Here it is already, Fourth of July again. Where does the time go? Today is the two month anniversary of my first day on the new job. And I'm still there! I have come to the conclusion that although I do like the job, I dislike the way I am underpaid and yet expected to perform beyond the agreement on a regular basis. If I can get through the summer with these issues, I will probably be OK, because I won't have constraints at home as much once school starts. But getting through the summer might be hard, since, for example, when I have to leave on time instead of being delayed and leaving late, I have to start impressing in the morning the importance of my leaving at the proper time. A far cry from the initial email offering me the job through the agency. But of course, there is no more agency. I am up the creek with no paddle now!

Anyway, M got her first paycheck ever and it's made out to "Morgan." I don't know if she can even cash it, and it's pretty small, only for the first two days, anyway. But they will certainly have to fix that. She has gone out tonight to sit around with a pair of friends from the team, after working all day. Tomorrow she will work and then we'll all watch the fireworks at the beach club. It will be a late night for her, and she has a morning swim practice at 6, work, and a night practice on Monday. But she will be off on Tuesday, at least.

And some more of her scores are in. She did very well on the ACTs despite doing just so-so in the science section, and she scored 4's on the three AP tests she took. And she heard from a few college coaches over the last few days, two of them who were quite notable and two of them who never even got through to her.

B has one more week of his camp, then he can work on some schoolwork and sleep a little before I get home to take him to the beach or somewhere fun for a couple of weeks, and then he leaves for his San Diego trip. I know he is looking forward to that. Otherwise, tennis and hanging around the house have been his life this summer so far.

As for Moll, she is not doing so well. Her follow-up test showed that her Cushing's had been overtreated and she basically has Addison's disease now. So she's taking prednisone but barely touching her food. She has been drinking better the last couple of days, and perhaps part of the reason she isn't eating is due to all the hamburger she's been getting just to entice her to eat. Why eat kibble when you can have hamburger, I guess ...? But she does seem more comfortable than when she couldn't even stop panting and was desperate for water all the time. The worst thing aside from the lack of eating is the weakness in her back legs. She doesn't really want to take walks or stay outside for very long.

And in other news, I had a flat tire in my truck this week. Turns out it had a nail just hanging right out of it, and Kevin managed to get it off and put on the spare. I'm trying to find the time to get it in for an oil change anyway, so I hope they can just patch the other tire up when I do that. Oh, and M was selected for the swim camp in Colorado. She got the official word last week. We haven't booked her flight because we're hoping that she and her friend can fly with their coach, and we don't know what flight he will be on yet. We hope to find out on Tuesday. But she will be there the week of her birthday, which meant I had to reschedule her road test. If she passes on the first try ::knock wood::, she will have her license for the last week of summer.

weekly review

So here I am a day early, who knows - maybe I will manage a double update this weekend! Much has gone on, I hope I can remember it all. First, B finished his whole week in tennis camp. He's pretty low energy in general so it about wiped him out. Then I took him for new glasses because I found out that he hasn't had any he will wear for a while. He's just been keeping his contacts in until it's time to go to bed, then he takes them out and goes to sleep because he can't see anything anyway.

As for M, she is FINALLY done with school. All she knows is that she got a B on the physics final and a B+ for the class for the marking period. I don't know when report cards will come with the rest of the info. But that was a pretty good grade for that class. Her one friend got a 95 on the final, the highest grade ever for the final with this teacher.

Today she started her rookie training at the beach. Of course, as luck would have it, we had our semi-annual skin review for her face at the dermatologist. She also has ringworm (ew) but that's going away. He gave her something stronger than what I had, even though it did look a lot better than it had. He says this new one is better. But he gave the whole speech about sun protection and skin damage even with sunblock. I told her maybe next summer she can look into a study-abroad program for a few weeks so she can get a practical application for the Spanish she's been studying and she won't have to spend 400 hours in direct sunlight.

She got her SAT2 scores back and she scored quite well on the Spanish test, for a non-native speaker, I think. She did even better on the US History test. Now I'm anxious for her AP scores, which will be out during July. She's also waiting to see if she got a position with the National Honor Society (she is going to be secretary of the Spanish Honor Society) and also she's awaiting the ACT scores. And July 1 is the first date that college coaches can make actual contact with her, so that will be an interesting day - will she get lots of calls, or none?? Much to anticipate this month.

But, oh. The biggest milestone is B's trip, which we booked using Kevin's miles. He is going to fly out to San Diego in July, leaving on a Sunday morning and returning on a Friday night.I can't believe that I am going to put him on a plane alone for six hours! But it's a great opportunity for him to have an experience that's all his own. He has really never been able to do that. I'm trying to find ways to help him build his confidence.

And in other news, Molly is still on her "loading" dose of the Cushing's medicine. She takes it twice a day and once a day I give her prednisone. He had said to do the latter twice, but it seemed to be making her worse. I'd like to not give it at all but the danger is that the dogs can crash. This way, she's pretty mellow and doesn't pant a lot during the day, but at night after the prednisone, she starts the whole panting thing again. And her limbs seems a lot weaker too, but I don't think that has anything to do with this medicine. And the one thing she is enjoys is that the medication is fat-soluble, so I have been giving it to her with hamburger. Wilbur enjoys that, too.

As for Kevin, he is trying to fix cars today. He replaced the mirror on my Explorer and only lost 1/3 of the screws that hold it on. Should be OK, right? (Don't drive too close behind me). Now he has gone off to try to pick up a part to repair the blower in his truck, which lost all the speeds from 1-4 (of 5), as I discovered on Monday when I went to return the tables and chairs from the party. And I should be off to procure food. The cupboards are bare of anything with any nutritional value.

weekly review

So here I am a day early, who knows - maybe I will manage a double update this weekend! Much has gone on, I hope I can remember it all. First, B finished his whole week in tennis camp. He's pretty low energy in general so it about wiped him out. Then I took him for new glasses because I found out that he hasn't had any he will wear for a while. He's just been keeping his contacts in until it's time to go to bed, then he takes them out and goes to sleep because he can't see anything anyway.

As for M, she is FINALLY done with school. All she knows is that she got a B on the physics final and a B+ for the class for the marking period. I don't know when report cards will come with the rest of the info. But that was a pretty good grade for that class. Her one friend got a 95 on the final, the highest grade ever for the final with this teacher.

Today she started her rookie training at the beach. Of course, as luck would have it, we had our semi-annual skin review for her face at the dermatologist. She also has ringworm (ew) but that's going away. He gave her something stronger than what I had, even though it did look a lot better than it had. He says this new one is better. But he gave the whole speech about sun protection and skin damage even with sunblock. I told her maybe next summer she can look into a study-abroad program for a few weeks so she can get a practical application for the Spanish she's been studying and she wont' have to spend 400 hours in direct sunlight.

She got her SAT2 scores back and she scored quite well on the Spanish test, for a non-native speaker, I think. She did even better on the US History test. Now I'm anxious for her AP scores, which will be out during July. She's also waiting to see if she got a position with the National Honor Society (she is going to be secretary of the Spanish Honor Society) and also she's awaiting the ACT scores. And July 1 is the first date that college coaches can make actual contact with her, so that will be an interesting day - will she get lots of calls, or none?? Much to anticipate this month.

But, oh. The biggest milestone is B's trip, which we booked using Kevin's miles. He is going to fly out to San Diego in July, leaving on a Sunday morning and returning on a Friday night.I can't believe that I am going to put him on a plane alone for six hours! But it's a great opportunity for him to have an experience that's all his own. He has really never been able to do that. I'm trying to find ways to help him build his confidence.

And in other news, Molly is still on her "loading" dose of the Cushing's medicine. She takes it twice a day and once a day I give her prednisone. He had said to do the latter twice, but it seemed to be making her worse. I'd like to not give it at all but the danger is that the dogs can crash. This way, she's pretty mellow and doesn't pant a lot during the day, but at night after the prednisone, she starts the whole panting thing again. And her limbs seems a lot weaker too, but I don't think that has anything to do with this medicine. And the one thing she is enjoys is that the medication is fat-soluble, so I have been giving it to her with hamburger. Wilbur enjoys that, too.

As for Kevin, he is trying to fix cars today. He replaced the mirror on my Explorer and only lost 1/3 of the screws that hold it on. Should be OK, right? (Don't drive too close behind me). Now he has gone off to try to pick up a part to repair the blower in his truck, which lost all the speeds from 1-4 (of 5), as I discovered on Monday when I went to return the tables and chairs from the party. And I should be off to procure food. The cupboards are bare of anything with any nutritional value.

summer starts soon!

The party is over! The big surprise :-) It was a lot of fun. Lots of cousins, and long lost friends, and some we have not seen in decades. To me, everybody looked exactly the same, especially Koke, the birthday boy. And now the balloons begin to deflate and we are polishing off the leftovers and pouring the flat soda down the drain and following the adventures of those were lucky enough to move on to Cape May rather than work, finals, and tennis camp.

So, back to reality. Molly has Cushing's disease, whatever that is. She's starting her medicines tomorrow morning, she'll take some adrenal-gland-killing drug and then, ironically, some cortisone as well. She goes back in a week for more testing to see if it helped. Meanwhile, we're just glad the huge disgusting bloody growth she had on her eye rolled off right in the middle of the party! She looks great now!

And for M, one more final: physics. As if the year could end on a more stressful note. But I'm glad it worked out this way, she's able to study and spend the time on her own. And ew, now she has ringworm. Good grief, can she not get a break. After weeks in the podiatrist's office for an unsuccessful attempt to eradicate the return of the plantar warts I spotted a bright red circle on her calf.

"What is that?" I ask. "I got a pimple from shaving and scratched it," she responds. But I'm not buying it. It looks like ringworm, but I treat it for eczema and staph. Yeah, not the right thing. It gets bigger and uglier. We go to the EMO, and it's ringworm. He tells her to put OTC medication on it for up to six weeks, four times a day. I think, great. We'll take his advice for exactly six days, which is when we have her regular appointment with the dermatologist, thankfully. And it looks stable for now, on the Lotrimin.

And B started his tennis camp today. We were lucky to have cousins and aunt and uncle here this morning, to pick M up from school so she didn't have to stay for the time when she would have had a history final, and B led himself across to the tennis academy. He said he had fun, and knew one kid there, as well as met a bunch who will be freshmen next year. By the way, his report card did arrive last Friday, and although I was prepared to say, "I never thought I would be so excited to see so many Cs," this is not quite true, as there was an actual 85 in the midst! In Spanish, of all things. The rest, sigh, were Cs, but one was a 77 so that was encouraging. Of course, these are year-grades, and include the first semester when a lot of work was just review and there were some higher grades.

So now it's time for the summer reading. Apparently they are doing things differently, and the books are being applied to the first marking period grades in the various subjects rather than to a random score which, if you fail, means you have to take gym your senior year. I find that bizarre, but - whatever. You fail summer reading and have to take gym? Not a real strong motivator to try too hard. I'm going to try to make him study guides; I told him after each chapter to stop and write all the new characters, the main things that happened in the chapter, and what he thinks will happen next.

Anyway, as for Kevin, he is back from Europe yet again but carrying on that he needs to fly 3,000 more miles before September to maintain his status with SAS. Maybe we can go to London again ;-) That'd be worthwhile!!

But really, there will be no big trips this summer for us. Maryland for M, maybe Colorado in August, and B will go to San Diego if we can work that out. I'm saving my (unpaid) holidays for the fall to take M to visit some colleges. The next few weeks should be interesting with a lot of important milestones: she starts her job next weekend, gets SAT scores this week, ACT scores possibly next week (although I accidentally registered her with a 1983 birthdate), colleges can begin calling her July 1, and she'll get her AP test scores in July. So stay tuned!

And in other news, I am committed to my job through the end of summer, which is when I figure my boss will break even on his buyout of me from the agency, and hopefully he will pay me enough to make it worth my while to stay there and do the work I have been doing for less than it's worth! I am just happy to be able to hack away at bills, knowing there will be another paycheck along in a couple of weeks.