Happy October

Sheesh. It feels like it was July like five minutes ago and now here it is, October, and I'm already stressing about finding a babysitter for our anniversary dinner, what costume to get McKenna for Halloween since SuperBaby is too big for the adorable witch costume I bought her before she was born, and what theme to pick for her birthday party.

Ay carumba, time is going by TOO FAST!!!! I can't believe it! And it's been over two weeks since my last blog entry....that just ain't right!

I hate to resort to the bullet updates, but I gotta do it. So here goes:

• We are having our master bathroom remodeled this week. For those long-timers who have been reading my blog for a long time, you may recall the ugly-as-sin yellow and white striped tile shower stall we had in our master bathroom...and you may also remember my comment about how that was on our top five list of things to do quickly? Earlier this summer we realized that it just couldn't wait anymore. We started looking for a contractor in early July with the hopes that we'd have it done by McKenna's party, but sadly, that didn't happen. And why? For the most unbelievable reason ever...we couldn't find a contractor to do it. We must have asked about four or five. We got one person to come by and look at it, but he never got back to us with a bid. Finally, it just so happened that the rental house behind us was having some work done on the kitchen, and I went in there and asked the guy to give us an estimate. First of all, he came. Second, he actually gave us a bid. And THIRD, it was actually affordable. So Monday, he came over and demoed our shower stall. Originally it was 3' deep by 4' wide by 7' tall with a fiberglass base, an arched opening, and 4" ceramic tiles and no light. Our new and improved shower will be 3' deep by 5' wide by 8' tall with a recessed can light, 12" MARBLE tiles, a tiled bottom and top, a squared off opening, and a new valve/shower head apparatus. I'm totally excited. Today he came and finished up the plumbing and did the framing. Tomorrow, the tile guys are coming. We're even having marble tile put in on the floor. We were just going to leave our vinyl tile, but the guy said that he'd do the floor for an extra $100, so why not? Hopefully he'll be finished by the end of the week, so I'll get some pictures up this weekend. We are also going to repaint the room, so it's going to get a whole makeover.
• McKenna's a mess. She's been fighting this cold thing for a few weeks and was just miserable this past weekend. We thought it was teething, but then when she spiked a fever Sunday night, I decided it was time for a trip to the doctor and a day home from school. Her doctor (not really hers since her regular ped is off on Mondays) said that she has an eye infection (pink eye that she picked up from school, I'm sure), ear infection (even though the tubes are working), and asthma. Exsqueeze me? Baking powder? I just looked at her like she was NUTS when she said asthma...I still don't believe it. I think McKenna has an upper respiratory infection...and the reason why I think that is because now P and I are sick with the same thing...coughing, whining and blowing green snot. But whatever. She got an antibiotic for the infections, so if she does have some sort of respiratory infection, it'll kick it at the same time. However, her lovely diagnosis earned her a nebulizer, which as best as I can tell is like an inhaler for babies. And she loves it EVER so much. Could you sense the sarcasm in that sentence? I kept her home today too and I know our contractor just thought I was torturing her when I was trying to get her to breathe in the medicine. So think good thoughts for my baby that she recovers quick. Today she was in a totally foul mood and screamed for about an hour and a half...STRAIGHT. If she did that on a regular basis, I'd probably be more used to it, but considering that she is the most easy-going flexible content baby, it really caught me off guard!
• We're not the only ones sick. My oldest cat, Gabrielle, is also sick. She has had this eye ulcer in her right eye for about six weeks that just hasn't gone away. I took her back to the vet this past Friday and the vet said that we were going to have to get really aggressive with her meds if we were going to save her eye. Apparently if her cornea gets really weak from this ulcer, she could rip her eye open. Yucko. So starting Friday night, she had to wear one of those collars to keep her from scratching it, and every four hours I had to apply this ointment to her eyeball and give her drops made from her own blood...some serum that would encourage her cornea to heal. She was really pissed at first about the collar, but the last two days she has been more affectionate with all of us and her eye looks so much better, so I guess she is healing! I was really worried on Friday though. She's thirteen and I don't want to put her through any kind of weird eye surgery. We'll see what they say tomorrow...I'm taking her in to be boarded for the day so they can watch her.
• I have now been supervising my team at work for a solid month. In that month, one employee has quit, another employee told me (just today) that she wants to go back to her old department at our company, and the third is just plain scared of me, I think. However, I'm trying VERY hard not to take it personally. The employee that quit has been on performance management for years, the employee that wants to transfer has been talking about it for six months, and the employee that is scared of me apparently has a confidence problem. The two that left/are leaving have both told me seperately that their decisions have had NOTHING to do with me (so that's a relief) and that had I been their supervisor earlier, they probably would not have left, but they still left/are leaving, so it's kind of sad for me. Oh, well. The good thing is that my managers think I'm doing a kick ass job so far and our office manager has pretty much told me I'm a sure thing as soon as I attend my last bit of training which is two weeks in Los Angeles in December. So that's good. My training is just about done. I have one week left to complete two computer courses and write my final report, I'm going to Oklahoma City for two days, so it's just about coming to a close, and then after that, I have a feeling my office is going to give me a bunch of adjusters to supervise while I'm waiting to go to LA.
• Scrapbooking? Nonexistent.
• Stitching? Nonexistent.
• I have four weeks to find a cute Halloween costume for McKenna.
• I went to McKenna's school yesterday to drop off her tuition check and was informed that they would like to move her to the toddler's room at the end of the month. This freaks me out on several levels because of the following: a) they sleep on pallets instead of cribs, b) they sit in very low chairs at very low tables instead of high chairs, and c) they eat the school food. I'll give you three guesses which one of those freaks me out the most. And apparently it's a dealbreaker...they have a VERY strict policy about outside food in after the kids leave the infant rooms. I can't believe that I just can't bring a brown bag lunch in for her, but apparently them's the rules and I either have to abide by them or pull her out of the school. Neither of those options appeal to me, quite frankly, but I'd rather her eat one marginally nutritious meal a day and two excellent ones than pull her out of this school. We discussed hiring a nanny, but I just don't know that I feel comfortable enough leaving a complete stranger with my child in my home. There's a lot to be said for a company...lots of rules and regulations and security in place to protect kids. So I guess we're just going to suck it up and let her eat a chicken nugget or canned peaches every once in a while.

In a nutshell, that's it.