the last 24 hours

24 hours ago I was curled up on my bed, trying to breathe. About 7 last night I started getting pains in my abdomen; lower at first, but then moving up to my rib cage. I worried it was a miscarriage but after the center of pain moved up I didn't think it was, but I was still worried. It hurt so bad that I actually spent some time confessing sins and making sure I was ready to go.

Once Bob got Daniel in bed he came to check on me, and I had him call my doctor's nurse line. She wasn't able to pick a cause over the phone and suggested a trip to the ER if "the pain was unbearable." On a scale of 1-10 I ranked it a 12, and we got in the van. The children were all asleep, so we left them home. Taryn is 15 so it should be all legal.

The drive to Washington Regional hospital was uncomfortable to say the least. It's hard to sit in a bucket seat while doubled over. But we made it there; I crawled in (well, it felt like it) and they handed us a paper to fill out. Then I was called into "triage" and asked silly questions about my height and history. Bob repeated that I was pregnant, and hey - action! She popped me in a wheelchair and sprinted a couple miles down to the maternity ward. 

It took them just a few minutes to attend to me, but again with paperwork. I was told to put on a hospital gown (for no apparent reason), and then she checked for the baby's heartbeat. It took her a while to find it, but she did, so we were relieved about that. Then she gathered a few paper towels which she used to carefully wipe her doppler while walking out the door, leaving me all gooey. She popped back in and wanted to check for dilation, which was also fine, and she again left the room without offering a paper towel for me to wipe up. Bob has only been present at a few checks, but even he knew that I'd want to wipe up. Meanwhile, still nothing done or said about the pain. Well, baby being okay, the said since I was 19 weeks 4 days and not yet 20 weeks, I had to go back to the ER. Another sprint - by the time we got back, Bob wanted a wheelchair. Meanwhile I'm groaning and retching...

Back in the ER we had to fill out a new paper and go to triage again, to answer the same silly questions and take my vitals. Then we sat. I writhed in my wheelchair and Bob tried to dose off on the plastic bench. They had "Family Guy" blaring on multiple TV sets. Bob people-watched and put together stories of the other "guests." I read Anna Karenina on my phone. My legs got twitchy. My stomach HURT! And the nurses hopped around and answered the phone and didn't make eye contact or give me any meds. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and tried to curl up on one of the double chairs. Apparently I dosed off for a few minutes, and when I woke up the pain was gone!

I sat up, and felt okay. I decided to walk across the room to the ladies restroom and put my shirt back on, and if I still felt okay, we would go home. I did, and it was. I took the hospital gown and puke bucket back to the nurse and said, "I guess it didn't kill me." She asked me to sign a paper before leaving, saying I was leaving on my own accord, against medical advice. In thinking about it afterward, I should have crossed out "against" and written in "without," but I didn't think of it then.

We got home at 4am, and went straight to bed. I slept fitfully from 5-8:30 and then woke up. Couldn't go back to sleep. I was tired and sore this morning, but not sick. So anyway, I made good progress in my book.

Today we went to Green Forest to pick up our beef, then into Huntsville for some shopping at Walmart for socks and undies, and lunch at Crossbow. We checked Granny's first, but they were crowded, and Daniel started crying for Crossbow. Back home to clean out and fill the freezer, wash the van, make supper, pack up our clothes for next week, print maps and directions, and get showered for church tomorrow.

Now, if Daniel will only go to sleep, so will I.

party time

There was a bit of a blow-up at church tonight when parties of the first part made a definitive statement, parties of the second part made a vague but pointedly contradictory statement and then was shocked and amazed when the first party took offense, while parties who were supposed to be of the first part showed themselves to be of the second part, and parties of the first part were accused of reacting inappropriately to a hypothetical situation rather than the actual one. Blood pressures were raised and mocked, apologies were tendered while ensuring that everyone knew the other party was actually in the wrong, and the whole party was loudly encouraged to move on while being prevented from doing so!

Obviously I'm not going into details, and I hope there is a trace of humor in my write-up, because, while nerve-wracking, the whole thing is so frustratingly silly when one steps back and looks at it. The worry is that innocent bystanders may have been offended or confused, but only time will tell if any damage was actually done.

pictures

 Bad picture from before the construction.

 New windows from outside, today. I wanted between-the-glass dividers, but Bob convinced me they would quickly become dated.

From inside, today.

And we have a door!

Well, I kinda gave away the punch line in the title, but here's the rest of the story.

Taryn had an allergy shot today, so it was back to town with us. Bob thought he'd be smart and look at the Lowe's in Rogers, since we hadn't been there yet. On the way we stopped at a small independent construction store, and they had some possibilities, but the one we liked best was a $650, and it wasn't perfect. So we went on north to Lowe's of Rogers. They didn't have anything new, but did have a few "rejects" that all opened the wrong way.

Next stop was Krispy Kreme, even though they didn't have the "Hot" light on (they didn't last time, either. We need to find out when they normally do). They also didn't have the mocha filled doughnuts, either. AND, though half of us wanted Kreme filled and half wanted custard filled (and she took them off the appropriate shelf) they were all custard filled. Grrrrr.

While there we looked over the door catalog from the little store and decided to go to Home Depot of Rogers. At Home Depot they had the same basic display as at the one in Fayetteville, but on the "reject" shelf they had a door that looked promising. So I flagged the cheerful young man to look up the price (it didn't have a price tag). He scanned it with his phone, and it came up blank. He got his co-worker's phone, and it didn't find it either. He tried the item number, and the search feature, and kept coming up empty. So I got MY phone out and scanned it with Google goggles (an app I have), and it found it on some shopping website as a Home Depot product "out of stock in 29 stores near you." It showed a price of $249. He looked at my phone and said that would do, and went to get us a cart. We had a winner! He helped us get it on the cart, and cut off the plastic wrapper.

We took the door up front and went to look at paint. After much deliberation we picked a sunny blue paint, then the right base for it, and went to wait at the paint counter while the employees there showed their lack of sequential thinking. We puttered a little more and went to check out.

The only lanes open were "self checkout" lanes with no scanner "guns." hahaha. The attendant had a scanner, so rang up the paint (was supposed to be $5 off and wasn't, but I didn't quibble), and went to scan the door when she noticed a "will call" sticker - meaning it was ordered and on hold for someone else. Oh, no! I explained it was wrapped in plastic so we hadn't seen the sticker before, and then looked at it - it was dated January. Well, she paged the door worker who'd helped us, but he was busy. So she called customer service, and they didn't help.  So she helped another customer, and then the guy called her back. She said the door has a sticker on it, and he said it was okay. So she shrugged and scanned it. But the bar code registered as invalid. She tried again. She paged the guy again. He called back again. He told her to just ring it up as a clearance item, and cost of $278. It had been awhile, I guess he forgot it was supposed to be $249, but it was still cheaper than just about any entry door we'd looked at, and we did like it, so we didn't say anything. She apologized for it taking so long and thanked us for being patient. And "Bob's your uncle," we were done!

Then the older girls and I went into Target while Bob rested in the van with the little ones. We hit some of the advertised sales, and got some chips. The shopping done, we went looking for a restaurant. Somehow we decided to check out the Rib Crib in Springdale. I got a menu from their website, but it didn't have prices, so Bob and I went in to see. I glanced over the menu, noticing the $11-18 price range and no kid's menu. Then a server came up and Bob asked about a kids menu while he asked if we needed a table for two. Prices there were $4-6. hmmm. I asked if there were any specials today, and he said "kids eat free." He verified there were no disclaimers. We called in the gang. We finally all decided on our food, but the burgers on the adult menu come with two patties, so Taryn asked if she could just get one patty, and he said sure. He also offered to mix Sprite and HiC for the boys' drinks. It was a little slow as they were short handed, but we needed the time to rest and relax. The food wasn't the best ever, but it was on the good side of the scale, and the portions were generous. When it came time for the kids' free ice cream the waiter informed Taryn that since she wanted a small burger, he'd rung it up as a child's plate, so she got ice cream, too! Then he came out with (in his words) "the longest, cheapest ticket I've ever seen." $23.50. For 10 people to eat, with soda and ice cream! Most of us had ribs, and there was some left over after we were all full. Unbelievable. We will be back soon, I'm sure.

Just two stops on the way home, for butter at Braum's and milk at Harp's grocery (and fuel while I was in the store). Phew! Home by 9pm. Achievement tests tomorrow morning...

Windows and doors and movies

(never mind the guy in the big black truck that likes to take advantage of the straight stretch in front of our house and do about 65MPH)

Monday Taryn went for her allergy shot and I had a dr appt. Got to hear the baby's heartbeat and do all that other fun stuff of a first OB checkup (blood draw, pap, etc). Then, since we were out, we popped into Lowe's to buy door for the new living room. There are several Lowe's stores in the area, but the one we usually go to is known as "North Fayetteville". We looked at their door, with lots of banging and fighting in the background (some crazy people took a whole herd of children in the store!!). Eventually we decided on a front door, and then went to get the back door we'd noticed on our last trip. Except now they didn't have that door in stock. As a matter of fact, even though it was still on display, they don't even stock it at all. A similar door, also displayed in the 36" width, was in stock as a 32" door. sigh. Bob thought it would be more convenient to get both doors at the same time, so we went to the front desk and had them check if any other store had the back door in stock. Several of them did, but the closest was the "Springdale" location, and they agreed to hold it for us.
After supper (Zaxby's, I think) we went to the other Lowe's and our back door was waiting for us. So then we went to get the front door we'd picked out. At North Fayetteville it was in stock and cost $322. At Springdale it was a special order and cost over $400. foiled again! Well, we bought the back door anyway and discovered only one would fit in the van at a time anyway.

We took delivery of our windows on Tuesday, and then spent the afternoon hanging the back door. :) There was a little hammering and lots of caulk/adhesive, and it went in!

Wednesday we took some stuff to the recycle center, taking advantage of their "free bulky waste" week which was in the newspaper over a month ago and not since. I also got in the garden again, helping the children plant lettuces and carrots.

Today Taryn needed another allergy shot, so we were off again. I thought we'd make a quick in-and-out stop at the North Fayetteville Lowe's to grab our front door, but Bob got creative. But first we had lunch at Wendy's. As we turned in we noticed the sign in the driveway declaring 99cent kids' meals with combo purchase, so we all picked out our combo choices and went to order. Except, the sign was for Backyard Burgers next door. So we had to fall back and regroup. Ordered off the value menu. Fed 10 people on $25.
After the shot we went to a feed store for a little grain for Dinner, our beef cow. While Bob waited for the warehouse people to get his order, we watched a worker load 9 flats of tomatoes in the slowest possible manner. It was starting to feel like this wasn't going to be a good day in the customer service department.
Bob thought it would be fun to go to the South Fayetteville Lowe's to see what they had in stock. We got some tomato plants and garden soil, then looked at the doors. They had the door we'd picked out before, but now Bob didn't like it. So we almost decided on another one that was special order... Asked a worker if it would be in stock at another store, but he pointed out that all 15 of the special order doors on display had the same model number and couldn't be checked on. yeah.

To rest our weary feet, I went to Aldi and got a few veges.

Then we went to a guitar store and bought a case for Cedwryck's mandolin. Then had supper at AQ Chicken (delicious as always). Then, just to shake things up, went to Home Depot. They still have the race car carts! Riah remembered them from Abilene. Daniel cried when we left because he liked it so much. They had the same garden soil on sale at Lowe's for 50cents less per bag. They also had two doors in stock that were acceptable to me, but Bob didn't feel an overwhelming connection to either of them. sooooo...

Back to North Fayetteville Lowe's. This was a quick in and out, but got nothing except the special order book for doors. We just aren't decided. Drove home in a fantastic thunderstorm, part of the way behind a man who was going about 15MPH (in a 35 zone), occasionally coming to a nearly-full stop halfway over the center line, and then swerving over the white line, nearly hitting a traffic cone. Yikes!

Movies... just one, actually. We rented "Frozen" and after Bob and I watched it, we all watched it together. I've read reviews pro and con (mostly pro), and while there are some reservations (can a person save themselves?) a person can pretty much take away from it what they want to. Personally, I thought it was a good illustration of 1John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

company chicken

We had a family of 6 over for dinner last night, and those guys can EAT! (Our guys do, too.)
We had a Chinese food buffet, with (bought) egg rolls, two kinds of chicken (since beef is 3x the price of chicken now), two veges, noodles, rice, and peach cobbler (so that's not Chinese, but tell me the mocha cakes are!).
I was asked for the chicken recipes, and since I have to type them anyway i thought I may as well share them here, in case Wil doesn't have them already. I mean, for all my dear readers. ahem.

Chinese Chicken (original recipe - I made about 3 times this much)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken (some like thighs; I like breast), cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 T oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
8oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained
4 oz can sliced mushrooms, optional (or fresh, but still optional) yuck!
2 ribs celery, sliced
4 ozs fresh snow peas, prepared (I left these out since no one actually likes them)
1/4 c soy sauce (Kikkoman is best)

Coat chicken with cornstarch. Heat oil in large skillet to med-hi; add chicken and brown quickly. (Do this in batches if making more than one pound). Sprinkle with garlic; lower heat to medium; add next 3 ingredients. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients; cover, reduce heat to low, and cook a few minutes.

Honeyed Chicken Teriyaki (for 4 servings - I doubled this as well)
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 or 2" pieces
1/2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg, beaten (I forgot this step!)
oil

sauce:
1/3 c honey
1/3 c soy sauce
1 T sherry
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Combine sauce ingredients and warm gently.
Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken in egg, then coat with flour. Heat oil in frying pan over med-high heat (it says 1/2 inch deep, but I usually don't go that deep). When hot, add chicken in batches. Cook and turn till nicely browned. Drain on paper towels, then place in baking pan. Pour sauce over and bake at 250* for 20 minutes or so, turning once to coat.

hello again

I haven't been keeping up the blog, have I? sigh. When I have things I want to say, i don't have a chance to say them. When I have time, I don't feel like writing.

We've got the bathroom ALMOST done. Just a bit more with the mirrors, and touch-up paint. And another towel rack, and an over toilet cabinet.

Got housewrap on the new living room, and poured cement for the bay window foundation, and started to frame the window. Took a picture, but my card reader isn't working.

Got the garden about ready to go, and started seeds indoors (even though I swore last year was the last time).

Elijah finally learned his ABCs. Daniel learns a new word every day, and gets into more trouble than a pet skunk.

I'm battling nausea and exhaustion. Bob is wrapping up his photography degree, and Taryn's learner's permit expired. As the county sheriff is now using the community center for an office (where they did have driving tests once per week) I don't know where to take her.

It snowed AGAIN today. We got about 2 inches, on top of heavy overnight rain. So hopefully we are catching back up with our average rainfall, as we continue to slosh about the yard. I don't even remember how many snow days we've had this season, but it was a lot. The public schools are doing Saturday school to make up for all the time lost.

Daniel slept all night for nearly a week, and then was up at 3 this morning. The children take turns feeling sorry for him; I didn't even hear him last night.

The dog killed two chickens, but the live ones are laying again.

And the laundry monster refuses to die...