ahka | Day off = out of the ordinary day

Ok, on Wednesday I was off from work because I volunteered to help out at Michael’s school while kids would walk from school to the park for last school days’ picnic. In addition to that I also scheduled dentist appointment at 2pm to get my permanent crown in.

So, in the morning, as usually I got up early, got kids and myself ready to go to the daycare. Michael as usually went to school. I stayed a little at my parents’ house having a light breakfast with my dad. I was supposed to be at school by 10am, so I even brought a book to read with hope that I would have quite free time. However, time flew and it was already after 9am.

I decided that I need to get some Target gift certificates for Michael’s teacher and teacher assistant. So, I drove to the nearest Target and walked through various aisles before grabbing gift certificates. I found very cute summer sandals for Michelle and a pair of flip-flops for her. Little girls’ shoes are so so cute! Then I got 2 thank you cards for the teachers, wrote thank you notes, and went to the school.

The weather was weird, it was sunny and generally warm; however, the wind was very strong and very cold. I was wearing summer outfit with open toe shoes in the morning and after my trip to Target I was glad I had a pair of clean sucks in my car and another pair of shoes. I looked ridiculous but I did not care, I was cold and had no time to go home to change clothes.

From school, all first graders went to the park for a picnic. There were a lot of kids, parents and school staff. We kept walking and walking, kids kept running, Michael introduced me to some of his friends and the walk to the park seemed to be not very long. I have never been in that area before. At first we walked along the street and then we turned onto park trails and walked for a while by middle school stadium, and then inside wooded area on the trails. I was so involved in watching over the kids and talking to Michael, I did not pay attention to the name of the street or turns that we made on the trail.

Finally, once we got to the St Mary’s park there was a great playground, open fields to play various games, basketball field, and more trails. Kids run around, parents involved some groups of kids in some games, some parents just were chatting with one another or with teachers. I don’t really like such events and felt awkward for a while.

Eventually I had a few words with Michael’s teacher and with some parents. I drew hopscotch and girls happily started jumping. Michael was all over the place occasionally coming to me and asking when they are going to eat.

Finally, lunch arrived, who set on the grass, who set on the benches or blankets. The weather was getting colder and colder. Even though Michael shared some of his lunch with me I was pretty hungry and time kept flying. I noticed that it is getting closer to 12:30pm and decided that I need to go home grab something to eat and go to the dentist. I was glad I made that decision and did not wait until kids were getting back to school.

I found Michael, told him that I need to leave, he happily said bye bye to me. As I started walking back, I realized that I had no clue where to go. I asked one of the teacher assistants which way to go back to school. He showed me the trail. As I started walking down that trail, there were a lot of trail branches taking in different direction. It was quite isolated area. I looked around and could not remember if that looked familiar. I kept walking fast. Luckily, my intuition proofed to be right. The turns I took were the right turns and finally I got to the street along which we walked the longest. I kept walking and walking and still couldn’t see the school. It took me about 20 minutes to get to my car.

When I got home it was already after 1pm. Boris and I had lunch and I ran to the dentist. Dentist put my crown very fast and at about 2:30 I was free. I was tired and hoped to take a nap before picking up kids from the daycare. Then, I remembered that our cleaning lady must come today (she comes once a month to help me keep house dust free), so I called Boris and yes, she just came and was working. So, I told Boris that I will go for a walk. Boris asked me jokingly, “how much is your walk going to cost me?” I told him that it will cost something for sure and it did (LOL).

I felt guilty that I got shoes for Michelle, but did not get anything for Michael. Also, I wanted to take a look at men’s clothing to get something for Boris for father’s day. I went to Express to return one shirt and then drove over to the Nordstrom Wreck. I found a pair of summer sport shoes for Michael, found a pair of pretty shoes for me, a very cute dress for Michelle and an outfit for our friend’s boy. There were signs that everything is on sale. However, when I went to pay, I could not believe that all of it was over $100. I did not find anything for Boris though…

When I got home, I was very tired and happy that my house smelled fresh and clean. I had an hour before picking up kids, so I took a short nap. I am glad I did!!!

My alarm woke me up, I got dressed and drove over to the daycare. There were only my kids and one other boy. My mom was in a hurry to leave for her appointment at 6:30pm. So, I stayed until other kid’s mom came to pick him up.

Oh, my mom told me that there was a note from school that someone had head lice and that one of the kids also had it at the daycare and one whole family had it a months or so ago. She suggested buying a shampoo that kills lice just as preventative for my kids since it was all over the place now. So, after daycare kid was picked up, I took Michael and Michelle to Target. I returned Michelle’s flip flops because she didn’t like them and we went to find that shampoo. It was in pharmacy first aid area.

After Target, we went to the library. We had to return a lot of books and DVDs and my Spanish CDs. Kids love to go to the library. Michael found bunch of DVDs, Michelle played with different books and then Michael went to look at some comics magazines. As he was pulling one out from the shelf, it accidently got into his eye. He started crying and holding onto his eye.

I remembered a story of my LJ friend and my mother-in-law about cutting their eyes. It sounded like he cut his eye with that magazine. I tried to keep him calm, even though he continued to cry and asking me to do something very fast. I told him to go check out his books and DVDs if he still wants to take them and I will think about what to do.

I called our doctor and of course, our clinic is closed after 6pm. There was a person who answered the phone after hours. She suggested to take him to the urgent care and gave me their phone number. I called our urgent care and they told me that I need to take him to the Emergency because they don’t have eye equipment or specialists. They gave me the address and directions.

Michelle needed to change her diaper with #2. I stopped at home to grab her diaper bag and some milk for her since it might take a long wait time at the emergency. On the way to the emergency I called Boris who was playing soccer at that time, left message for him. Then I called my mother-in-law to ask about her eye cut and tell her about what happened and also tell her not to come over tonight since I would cancel our Torah study group. I called Masha to cancel the lecture. Michael continued to hold his eye and not being able to open it and continued to cry.

Once we got to the emergency, there were no people in the waiting area and we got in immediately. Michael wanted to go to the bathroom; I still needed to change Michelle’s diaper. We asked nurse to give us some break to take care of our needs. She took the important information and let us do what needed to be done before doctor came to look at Michael’s eye. By the time Michael was ready to see the doctor, his eye got better and he left it alone and opened it. When nurse asked him if it was hurting a lot or a little, to my surprise, he said “it was hurting a little.” I started thinking to myself, I should’ve waited and see if it gets better and not panic and run to the emergency right away. I thought that there was more panic then injury.

A doctor came very quickly. We were clean and ready for the doctor. She took Michael to take a look at his eye through a microscope. It was the same machine that my eye doctor was checking my eyes with just a week ago. The doctor put some sedative drops in Michael’s eye and then put some yellow drops to see his eye better. She looked into the microscope and immediately saw the corneal abrasion. She used bright green light to show it to me. I saw the scratch. Dr prescribed ointment that needs to be put 4 times a day and told us to make an appointment with an eye doctor to make sure it heals right. It was already 8:30pm, so we ran to the pharmacy to make it there before 9pm.

The pharmacy we went was at our Cub Foods. We had to wait 20 minutes. Michelle behaved very well throughout the whole time. Michael kept crying from time to time. All of us were getting hungry, tired and irritated. Michael was very fussy and started acting out telling me what to buy for him. I ended up getting some cookies for the kids and gave them to eat while we were at the store. That quieted them down. We got home at about 9:30pm.

I called my parents and they decided to come over, since they were visiting their friends in our area. My mom helped me bath M & M and put them to bed. What a day! Whew!

In the morning the energy continued. Michael woke up cranky. Then on the way to the daycare we were stuck in traffic and Michael really needed to go to the bathroom. He said that he will pee his pants if I don’t stop. So, I stopped on the freeway and he went into the tall grass.

At work, I had a lot of calls to return, make appointments and check all of the e-mails from yesterday. Today, I will begin my hypnotherapy training and will get home after 9pm.