WHY do things always have to swing SO FAR BOTH WAYS around here?!

Ok. Got up, had plans for the day, had vehicle in place.

Cue hemmoraging crazy period of doom and 4 hour long allergy attack. I swear I wrapped ice in rags for my sinus headache, had tears running down my cheeks from my swollen, itchy eyes, blew my nose, changed my underwear, mopped the bathroom floor, blew my nose, wiped my nose, changed my underwear again...for four hours. With Jake and Isaac screaming-and-slapping fighting, Ananda and Aaron old-married-couple bickering and Elise following me around, bowlegged and low-grade fussing.

I got everyone ready. I had a pretty good, fairly long first-time phone conversation with Lindsay/talula_fairie. We got off the phone, the allergy thing kicked in again just as Elise showed me a blood covered hand...that after initial panic I realized was from grabbing a spot on my pants I had not yet realized was soaked in blood.

I was wearing thin, loose, stretchy black pants, ok? And I was busy finding missing shoes and packing diapers and trying to get a shirt on Jake.

I called Kristin, sorry we're late but really, you wouldn't have wanted me there for the past few hours :p Told her I was going to hop in the shower, get some new clothes, and come to her house. We'd just stay for an hour or so. All good. She said if it got bad at her house, she'd just hose me down. This is why I love Kristin. In general, I find women who've given birth in their backyards aren't afraid of menstruation ;)

I got in the shower. I had Ananda and Aaron playing with Elise in the hallway. I rushed to wash my hair. As I was rinsing it out - meaning I'd been in the shower UNDER 5 MINUTES - Annie was yelling "Elise is pooping!!!" I said, just bring her to me, I'll clean her up in here in the shower - lead her this way. Elise was naked. I got her in the shower and asked where she pooped. Ananda said, "Everywhere." Which room? "All of them." WHAT?

So, I got her cleaned up, nursed her and she fell right asleep in the shower, which is typical of her. White noise + very warm water + skin to skin and nursing = softly snoring. I carried her, asleep, to my room, where she stirred a little as I set her down. She nursed a tiny bit more, and spit out the slivered remains of a cough drop. I can't remember the last time anyone in this house had a cough drop - it's been weeks, at least! I do clean. Constantly. She had nursed all that time, and fallen asleep and everything, with a cough drop? I tasted it to see if it was just one of those candy-type Luden's ones we get for Isaac when he's sick...and it wasn't. It was a Cepacol Ultra, which means LOADED with extra strong oral anesthetic...I had a single pack of them like a year ago? Just from tasting it, my tongue was numb.

I ran to Ananda and Aaron. Apparently as soon as I got in the shower, Jake opened the hall closet, and somehow managed to dislodge the shelving attached to that closet door, which has medicine up at the top. Some fell. Aaron wrestled it closed and told him to stay out of it. Annie thought she cleaned up everything that dropped. I found the little foil package she or Jake or SOMEONE had pulled the cough drop out of. Next to one of the piles of poop. This was insanity, I told them in the future, if they ever see one of the little kids getting into something they shouldn't, please PLEASE immediately come and get me, DON'T try to handle it on your own. I explained how serious the medicine could be for Elise, and that it wasn't their fault at all, because they're kids too and kids can't be responsible for other kids...but even as I was saying it, I knew this was my error because *I* had MADE them responsible for other kids :/ I don't want Aaron scolding Jake or Annie thinking she can clean up medication! And I don't generally encourage that sort of thing. Obviously from now on if I'm going to try to sneak a shower while Grant's gone it's going to have to be, like, when Jake is asleep and with Elise with me in her bathseat or something. It really didn't seem like a big deal at the time to leave her 10 feet from the shower stall playing with two older siblings that are generally mature. *sigh*

I was FIVE MINUTES into a TEN MINUTE SHOWER. My first shower in FOUR DAYS.

Called poison control, read active ingredients, had phone propped on shoulder as I swiffered, mopped, scrubbed, wiped etc poop. It WAS "everywhere". They told me to rush her to the hospital immediately, but then put me on hold to ask a supervisor? Final verdict was, watch her breathing like a hawk - that stuff doesn't play and if she has a numb throat, she can aspirate saliva very easily.

I spent the afternoon watching my baby like a hawk as she napped peacefully, hoping her breathing would stay normal and feeling like a complete irresponsible ass. Especially when poison control gave me a "courtesy call" 2 hours later to check on her. *sigh*

Did a ton of cleaning, with Ananda doing a ton of pitching in for .50-$2 per task, depending on level of difficulty. This was all voluntary, she keeps asking me what she can do to make money, and generally speaking there is ALWAYS something that would help me. My Beast (Elise) woke up with fluffy clean hair, acting totally normal. I took everyone to Spellbound Books for game night. It was really great - they hadn't seen Elise walk before as we hadn't been there in awhile, and it was nice to talk with Denisse (owner) and A and A and Isaac love playing with those kids. There were a LOT of people there tonight. And they got clown fish for the anemones in the aquarium, which is Oh So Finding Nemo and really fascinated Aaron to see in real life. I had printed out my Amazon wishlist of books for them to order.

It was REALLY GREAT. I got a takeout dinner on the way that rocked, and a frappuccino, and my baby who always apparently is just fine, was just fine, and....it was just so good to be OUT of the HOUSE. Socializing with adults. Jake was being incredibly Jake-like and not the monster he'd briefly turned into - he sat in chairs looking at books quietly, stood on the stepstool to watch the aquarium, asked me funny questions, played with Elise.

Then he started running toward me, on the painted concrete floor, from the game room in the back. In his crocs, which are a little awkward, and in a bookstore. "Stop running! Jakey, you're gonna trip, watch ou-" Flat on his face. Blood all over. I thought he knocked a tooth out, but it was just a tiny piece of food on the roof of his mouth (they were snacking in the game room). He calmed down fairly quickly, but DAMN.

I came home, had a downright exhilarating evening with Grant. We watched Lost, laughed, browsed houses on the internet - he saw some of Elise's new skills, like her new pucker-up kisses and how well she's responding to signs. Jake and her playing was making him laugh. He took Aaron in the room for a guitar lesson (they've been doing that a lot, Aaron is obsessed).

We found some incredibly interesting houses online tonight. Two in the Redlands, which is the rural, agricultural community bordering Homestead on the NorthWest. Most of those houses, because they're in a rural area so close to Miami and a half hour from the Keys, are WAY EXPENSIVE. I've seen 3-4 bedrooms mostly in the 850k range. If there's more than a quarter acre or it has a pool or a second story or anything like that it's like, bam, 1 million+. Not tonight, by golly! :p Honestly I'm kind of afraid of ending up in that Tom Hanks movie "The Money Pit" because it HAS to be too good to be true - but ok, one of these places is a 2 story 4/2 with 2700 square feet, front porch spanning the front of the whole place, 2 car garage, and an A-MAZ-ING tiled, covered patio on the back with a bar - HUGE yard and I think it looks like they're even including two other lots as part of the property? It's pre-foreclosure and only listed as $350,000.

DID YOU HEAR THAT?! I mean in this market you don't pay full price, you haggle...my mother in law (who is a realtor) was saying she would never pay more than like 315 for something listed at 350 right now, some 300k places are going for like 180. And the ad says stuff like "Motivated seller, make offers".

I am afraid because:

-With 16 pictures, none are of the kitchen O_o
-It just generally looks like an old house, inside. You know, small bathrooms, dated windows, FIREPLACE IN SOUTH FLORIDA?, what if it only has one outlet per room and a single phone jack in the kitchen :p
-Although it says central AC, I see a wall-unit air conditioner in one of the pictures O_O

It says concrete block construction, which is good for hurricanes, and shingle roof, which is way safer than these fools who are putting Spanish tile on all the new houses that are like flying shrapnel in a storm...I don't know, we're gonna look at it anyway.

We also found another 4/2, also in the Redlands although closer to town - sort of South Dade Park area, but not one of the new ones, for those who'll know what I mean (the other one is like by the Fruit and Spice Park), and this one is 2200 square feet, more new and updated looking, single story - it has a very big yard for Homestead but a smallish lot for the Redlands, so pretty decent overall. It's listed as only 325, so we could probably get it for under 300. Maybe a bit under, it says it's out of town sellers, "motivated and ready to negotiate".

We could have CHICKENS at either of those places! And definitely a huge garden. But like, if we lived in the Villages of Homestead where we've also been looking, we would get to use their pool and clubhouse fitness room and walking paths and playground and all, but we sure as heck couldn't have chickens in a yard there. One has homeowner's associate fees, the other has (significantly more steep) mega property taxes. I was thinking tonight, I like the Villages a lot but that's a flood zone and in the summer the mosquitoes over there are so bad that we avoid that whole part of town for a couple of months...

Anyway after that Lost episode (we're in Season 2), seeing these new houses to go look at, snuggling, my baby showing off and Jake being all cuddly, I feel like everything is peachy and can't wait to go pick up my books in a few days.

But damnitt a lot of this day was THE PITS.

One perk: we'd been driving around on two different tires with slow leaks, having to fill them up with air every day or two, with bad alignment, for months, and in the past couple of weeks the brakes were feeling weird. We got it all fixed up two days ago and I was driving around today - it seriously feels like a new van. SO much better, it was really startling. I didn't realize how much the handling had deteriorated. And I paid off my credit card.

But, I also got a bill I had TOTALLY forgotten about, for Jake's contusioned foot last summer/fall...I think this is the first one they've sent me? It's over a thousand dollars, but for an ER visit with x-rays I guess that's...reasonable? I suppose as that was right after a 2 day stint at Miami Children's with Elise, and just before we took Isaac to the cardiologist (just had to be checked because of a minor anomaly he has, nothing serious), had Jake's glucose tested since he was giving off diabetes symptoms, and Ananda's warts burned off, my mole biopsied and then me admitted for emergency surgery...I just forgot all about that foot thing.

It is a sign of how bad this medical cost stuff is that when I winced today upon opening that, Annie said casually, "More medical bills?"