I took Genny to the pediatrician Monday as a follow-up from her emergency room visit. She's still running a low-grade temperature, but he said it was ok to put her in swim lessons today, which she just LOVED. I swear, while Russell is the stone that sinks, Genny is the fish that swims.

On a lark, I asked the pediatrician to look at my ears. They've been excrutiatingly painful, even after the doctor said I should be well-healed after the tonsillectomy.

He said I've got fluid behind one and the other one is bright red and infected.

It explains why I've been having to take pain meds, well after the date that the doctor seemed to think I would be.

I saw the ENT today, who said that 5% of people who have the tonsillectomy get ear infections. Lucky freakin' me. I'm on antibiotics and more painkillers. I will be damned glad to go back to my three pills a day regimen -- my diabetes meds, my thyroid, my asthma.

Ear infections are right up there along with ripping a nail below the quick and childbirth. I hate them and I'm a sad sack of agony the entire time I have them. It also explains why I've been wishing I had an ice pick to puncture my ear drums with. It also explains why the doctor thought I should have been further along in the healing process with my tonsils. Apparently, the half course of antibiotics wasn't enough to keep the infection at bay.

And last night, despite the heating pad on full blast, and vicodan, still kept me up half the night.

It gives me free reign to use a heating pad and moan and groan a lot over the next several days.

I thought I just needed to suck it up and deal. Apparently, that's not the case. I'm just glad I asked rather than continue to suffer along.

Today, we started two weeks of swim lessons, which I know Genny is dying to do and Russell would rather chew glass than do. I'm hoping that Russell will be motivated to move along, this year, because this is a different program, more oriented towards competition. I think he would benefit from swimming competitively enormously and it's something we could do together.

I haven't had yoga for two weeks now. I blew off this week's class because Genny's pediatrician appointment was in the one big town at the same time as yoga was in the other big town. Russell was pissed and hoped that Mike would go, but I think it's safe to say that Mike would rather gnaw off a limb than breathe deeply and even mildly pretzelize himself for yoga. And Mike already had to blow some time for Russell's botox dr. appointment.

The doctor assured us that Russell's muscles will contract again when he grows and he'll need more botox. I can nearly assure him that he's wrong because with the yoga and physical therapy, he's very limber -- more limber than most people and kids I know. I think I will just keep pushing Russell to practice his yoga and to keep in mind how he can control whether or not he gets botox again.

The brush fire just down the hill from us, had Mike and the kids pulling the weeds out of the front. I'm hoping that we can get most of it knocked down and then the rock put down, next week. Brush fire danger is yet another reason, I am NOT doing bark. That one got put out and we've got another several hundred acre one going on about 10 miles from here. We can see the plume of smoke from here. In a couple hours time, it went from 100 acres to 500. Gah.

I'm hoping that we'll have most of it removed by the time we get the money wired into our account, so I can simply go to the rock place, and put in an order.

--

On the happy side of life?

I went to Costco. I love that place. The fruit at this time of year alone justifies the membership. Two boxes of blueberries, a big thing of strawberries, and melons -- I'm a happy happy girl.

I also really think that the furniture they have at Costco is soooo awesome. I just enjoy the chairs and tables and neato things they have and I always want something they have -- not usually in a gotta have it sort way -- just in a wow, that would be cool sort of way.

One year, they had the most gorgeous leather chairs. I would have chewed off my arm to have a beautiful $700 chair like that in my livingroom. And then I remembered that I have kids, and I decided that I'd just rather put a slipcover on what I have than buy something really beautiful and nice that my children would thrash. I'm waiting until I'm retired and I only have to fend the grandchildren off the furniture once or twice a year. That and pine doors inside the house.

Mostly, I'm jonesing for a rectangular outside umbrella for the picnic table. And Costco doesn't have it. I checked. ;)