A visit to a Minute Clinic

A cold has been circulating the greater Detroit area. My younger son and I had it a few weeks before the wedding. Most of the bridal party was sick either just before, during or after the event. Last Wednesday I was hoping it was just my sinuses bothering me, but by Friday I figured the cold was back again. We had a combination birthday and retirement party to attend Saturday afternoon. I thought a late morning nap would make me feel more rested. That plan backfired as a cough kept me awake and I could now hear a rattle in my chest.

I've had bronchitis often enough to know that I need to take it seriously. Wishing it was still Friday with the possibility of seeing my own doctor wasn't getting me anywhere, so I decided to try one of the Minute Clinics at a CVS drugstore. 

There were three people ahead of me when I signed in, but two were getting flu shots so they were in and out quickly. The nurse practitioner saw me about 25 minutes after I signed in. After the usual questions regarding why I was there, duration of symptoms, checking of ears, nose, throat, temp and blood pressure, the diagnosis was bronchitis and three prescriptions were given to me.

I've done not much more than watch TV and sleep since returning from the clinic, but I definitely feel better. I don't know what the mission statement of Minute Clinics might be, but my take is that they exist for those who cannot get in to their doctor when needed or perhaps don't have a doctor in the area. My own doctor will remain my first choice when I feel that I need treatment, but I am glad that Minute Clinics exist and helped me out this weekend. Based on how I was progressing, I think I would have been very ill by this morning when I could have made an appointment with my doctor.

Now, does anyone have any chicken soup they can send me?

One more serious post on bullyism

This is going to seem unbelievable to most of you. Bullying isn't bad enough among peers...in this case it is adults who have targeted a child.



For updates on this story which include good news such as the outpouring of love by many, click here and read the updates in the sidebar. The monster of a neighbor has had her own children removed and they are now living with their biological father. That this woman is a parent herself and could act this way is truly mind boggling.

2 for 1 today: Serious first, then fun

I was going to write about something completely different today but after visiting Carol at Charli and Me and reading her posts dated October 20 and October 18, that post idea has been tabled. Carol's Oct 20, 2010 post is the serious part of my entry today. It is about bullying.

One of two links in Carol's blog will take you to another blogger who wrote her blog post as a letter to her daughter. The author thought only a few people would read it but instead it has "gone viral" and been referenced by many other bloggers.

Is there an easy answer to stopping bullying? No, but we can all do something. Tell a child they are wonderful. Tell them you love them. Tell them they can talk to you about anything. Don't stop telling them any of this. My guess is that bullying is worse today than when I was a child for many reasons. Growing up in the 50s and 60s, the pace of life was different. A teacher was more likely to hear or see the bully in action. Other parents were likely to see or hear it and intercede. Because we had a respect for adults back then that isn't always present today, and because we feared repercussion if an adult told our parents of our bad behavior, some bullies may have been stopped early and much more easily.

Today, with cell phones ever present and tweets, texts, blogs (do kids use blogs?) and Facebook, bullying can go cyber and anonymous. A bully's parents may have no idea what their child is doing. The child may be doing this in their own effort to fit in, to divert attention from their own insecurities or lack of popularity. Scary stuff.


Now on to the light stuff. 






Carol's post dated October 18th featured pumpkins at a local vendor's stand. I did a double take, wondering if we had visited the same seller. Probably not, but if you look at her photos and at these, you might think my husband and I were following her! Maybe due to the season, I should say corn stalking her?

 Grandpa, I am not afraid of this straw guy...it is just to bright out here to open my eyes!

 Whatever I am sitting on sure feels picky.

This one isn't a bad size, at least I can hold it. 

See? I can touch him in here where I can open my eyes.

Isn't Grandma done with the camera yet? I'm counting to three and then we're outta here.

(See his fingers? He was on "two" so I had to hurry and snap the photo!)

 Hey Grandpa, watch it there squeezing my biceps!

 

If I refuse to look at her and smile, will she finally let us go home?

Don't look at me! I didn't put this thing here!

Maybe next year this will be more interesting.

May the worst thing any of our lil punkins have to deal with this Halloween season, be they 7 months or 32 years old, is that mom, dad, grandpa or even grandma might snitch a piece or two of their favorite Halloween treat.

Good news, bad news

The good news is that my problems don't seem to be Blogger related after all. The bad news is that my $%#@*& computer is infected AGAIN. I am fortunate to have the laptop as a backup, but this is inconvenient for many reasons.

Having gotten that out of the way, I would like to get back to my intentions of early this week, that being writing about the wedding and festivities leading up to it. I have limited online time today and the next few days as the newlyweds are on a 4 day honeymoon and I am on grandma duty full time. Besides posting withdrawals, I have reading withdrawals and will be catching up as best I can between playtime, feeding and of course, diaper changes!

Back on topic, the Girls Night Out aka Bachelorette Party was hosted a week before the wedding by a bridesmaid who lives down the street from me. My sister-in-law, Kim's mom and I did not join in the stretch limo that visited various watering holes after the two hour house party. We're old. It was a Friday night. We're tired on Fridays!

Here we have the Princess Bride with a hunky gift bag.


We had an abundance of appetizers, a few sweets and pizza along with the hostess' featured cocktail of the evening, a peach bellini martini. Oh my! It was good. Sooooo good. I'm not surprised because this woman is quite the mix-master, but I usually don't care for fruity drinks.  Lots of girl talk and laughter accompanied all of this.

Here I am with the bride's mom


And here, with my sister-in-law. We don't look a thing alike, but I am sure we were supposed to be sisters (neither of us has one) and fate led us to marry brothers so that we could be together. We didn't plan to wear the same color that evening, but that seems to happen often. 


My younger son Billy is a good friend of the hostess. He dropped by with some items that she needed. Someone teased that he was a hired stripper. I announced that I'd be going home pronto. After more laughter, I tried to embarrass him by dancing around him. After all these years, he doesn't embarrass any more. Darn. That used to be so much fun! 


The funniest part of the evening for me had to be the Jello Shot lesson for Kim's mom and my sister-in-law. Neither of them had ever had a Jello Shot before. I don't really care for them, again its the fruity thing, but we all did one anyway. Did I mention we're old? We used a plastic knife to loosen the Jello from the sides of the cup. The young women laughed at us, but we got the job done.
 

I can't tell you how nice it is to not only gain a daughter through this marriage, but to have her family and mine joined in so many important ways, and nights like this that were just pure fun. 

My next post will be photos from the rehearsal night. I'm off to visit blogs now without fear of being kicked off or worse, having redirects to really nasty websites.

Do you think it is possible to take out a life insurance policy on a computer, then shoot it and collect the money to buy a new one and start over fresh? If I put the smoking gun in the trash with dirty diapers, they'd never find the evidence!

Still having Blogger issues

I am about ready to give up on Blogger. Most times when I attempt to begin a post, I get a rotating wheel like thing in the posting area and a message at the bottom of the page that data is being transferred. I haven't been able to use Preview mode in well over a month. The Save button isn't working either.

Next up will be trying to post from our laptop, but that will only be to determine if it somehow the settings here that Blogger doesn't like. The laptop doesn't have the photos that I would like to post stored there, and in general, it just isn't as comfortable to use.

I am really frustrated. Is anyone else having issues waiting for Blogger to let you post, or with the preview mode?

Wedding is over, but Blogger is giving me fits

The wedding was glorious and I've been trying to write about it for two days but Blogger is giving me fits.

I thought the background template I had been using was somehow part of the problem but changing to this one has been no help.

I am going to try a few more things before I look into another platform, probably Word Press. I hope to be able to visit blogs later today even if I can't post more than a few lines on my own.

The countdown is speeding up!

By this time next week, the wedding will be over, my feet should feel rested after the reception and I might have a few mornings of waking up on my own without an alarm clock. Ahhhhhhh.

Everything wedding is going well, but regular living seems to think it should keep going too. Who the heck wants to do laundry, clean the house and grocery shop the week of the wedding?

Has anyone had trouble with Blogger's Preview mode lately? I use it often but haven't been able to use it the past few days. I thought it was related to upgrading my anti-virus but yesterday I thought to try it on my test blog and it worked fine. Now I am thinking it could related to the template I am using for the background here. It might be time to change. Again. But not until next week.