The Napkin

Recently I was sitting at our kitchen table enjoying dinner with Jason and the girls when I found myself staring at my daughter in shock.  It is nothing serious or bad but it is a habit that has now crossed from Didon (Jason's father) to Jason to Sofia.  For those who knew Didon you know exactly what I'm talking about....the napkin folding!!!  It caught my eye when I noticed Sofia folding her napkin over to wipe her mouth.  She then proceeded to fold it a few more times and tuck it under the side of her plate.  Does that sound familier????  I turned to see if Jason noticed only to see his napkin folded neatly under the side of his plate!  For those who don't know how this plays out, it isn't just folding the napkin over once.  It is folding the napkin over and over into a tiny square so that the entire thing will fit under the edge of your plate.  Sofia hasn't quite mastered it well enough yet to get the entire thing under the side of her plate but I'm sure she will get there soon enough. So Grandpa Didon's fidgety-ness has passed all the way down to his grandchildren.  It's good to know he lives on in his son and grandaughter!

Happy Halloween!

We have not done many fall things this year like decorate the house or make jack-o-lanterns.  Our schedule was very hectic and then I was away and then the kids were on break and wanted to just relax which was fine with me as I was dealing with jet lag.  Today we found ourselves at Halloween already and the time for pumpkin carving had passed.  We didn't completely fail as parents however becuase I did bring back costumes, face paint, and glow in the dark bracelets from the U.S. for the girls to dress up as witches.  So come 3:30pm Jason and I got the girls dressed up in their witch costumes, pinned their witch hats to their hair (since the hats where made for a child with a head the size of a pea!), and painted their faces green and headed to my friend Laura's house for pizza with friends befre heading our for trick or treating.  As the development (which is just down the hill from our house) is really enclosed we did not have to worry much about cars which was nice.  Everyone (those celebrating Halloween) in the development all went together in a big group and whoever was the owner of the next house to stop at just ran ahead to be able to answer the door for the kids.  The kids had a lot of fun and it was nice that the outside time was all completed in an hour since the temperature started to drop and the kids started to get cold just as we finished.  Overall a very sucessful halloween!!

Power Outages

We have had a number of power outages lately.  The one that kicked it off was at the beginning of October.  Jason was working and the girls and I had gone to a friends house for the afternoon.  When we arrived home most of the power in the house was out.  We had randowm power....the livingroom lights, the cooktop and the fridge in the kitchen.  I went to the fuse box and checked everything and everything seemed in order.  Just for good measure I flipped all the switches and flipped them back on but that did nothing.  I went to our main power switch outside and flipped it off and on but that did nothing.  I then called the landlord.  They came out to the house and did all the things I had done to no avail.  She called the electrician who said he could come but wouldn't be able to come until around 8:30pm.  I said that was fine so our landlords left and I waited for them to come back at 8:30pm.  Well, the electrician was running behind and he eventually came around 11pm.  He looked at the fuse box, checked all the switches and then went outside to the main box.  Now, there are two boxes outside.  One that houses the main power switch and then abother box.  I have never been in the other box and don't know what it does but fortunately the electrician does. He opened that box and found that apparently during the day someone had come and stolen a piece out of the box which caused our power outage!  I couldn't believe this had happened!  Who steals pieces out of electrical boxes??!!  Since this power outage I am much more sensitive to any outage.  Whenever the power goes out I immediately run outside to see if anyone is stealing anything from our electrical box!  Fortunately, the recent outages haven't been for theft.  We had a pipe of some sort break in the basement which left us without water for a day which also tripped the breaker.  It took us a while of hunting before we went down into the basement and saw the water on the floor.  We called the landlord and had that fixed.  Our latest outage has to somehow do with the fan for our woodstove.  I'm not really sure what the problem is but the boiler guy was here today and he said it was an electrical problem and that the electrician will come.  We shall see what he says but I don't have high hopes.  My guess is that there is some clog in the pipe somewhere but who knows.  I will wait and see what happens.

Grilling Adventure

Before I went to the States I was making dinner on the grill.  I was very organized and had marinaded salmon for the girls and I to eat and then one piece of salmon that I could throw on the grill for Jason when he got home from work.  I made salad with home made dressing and rice to go with the salmon.  I prepared everything put the salmon on the grill and flipped it over.  I went inside to prepare all the plates and then went back out to the grill to take the salmon off.  I started to lift the lid and to my surprised flames came shooting out everywhere!  I was quite startled and dropped the lid back on the grill.  I thought that I must have imagined all the flames so I tried to open the grill more cautiously but no, I had not imagined all the flames.  The enire inside of the grill was on fire.  I turned the gas off hoping this would stop the flame but it did not.  I then noticed that the flame was coming from the grease catcher under the grill and realized that the flame was not going to go out on its on since it was a grease fire and it had an entire pan of grease to burn from.  I decided to use the long grill spatula to tap down the fire and luckily that worked..  Once I had that flame out I cautiously, using the spatula, lifted the lid of the grill.  There were still spots of flame inside the grill so I poured baking soda on all the flame areas and successfully put out the fire.  While I was proud of myself for fixing the problem I was very angry becuase now I had no salmon for myself and the girls to eat for dinner.  It was already late and getting close to bedtime so I fed the girls salad and rice for dinner which they didn't seem to mind.  I however, was very angry and didn't even feel like eating at this point so I got the kids ready for bed and waited for Jason to come home to figure out dinner.  Since we couldn't sue the grill until we cleaned it out Jason decided to just cook the salmon in the oven.  After preheating the oven however, we lost power.  When the lights went out Jason gave up on the salmon also.  It was a good thing we had leftovers in the fridge!

Back from the U.S.

Last week I spent a whirlwind week in America.  I had not been back to the States in one year and eight months and it was time for me to make a trip home.  Since Jason had been back to the U.S. about five times in that same period we decided that I would go back by myself and save the money of bringing the entire family.  I only went for 9 nights which is not enough time to bring the kids through the jetlag.  As I wasn't bringing the kids I had a vision of relaxing but that did not happen.  To many stores to go to and family members to visit that my days were spent rushing from one place to the next.  It was good to see everyone though even if I had to rush to do it. 

We managed to fit in some family exercise while I was there.  On the Saturday after I arrived (I arrived Thursday night) my mother, aunt, and both of my sister-in-laws ran a race together.  My Dad and one of my brothers came to watch and cheer us on.  Unfortunately my other brother had to work that Saturday but it was nice to have most of my family together for the event.  The race was a 5K race for lung cancer that ran through Roger Williams Park in Providence.  The park was very hilly but despite the hills, not having trained for speed, and battling jet lag I still did well in the race.  I came in 2nd in my age group for women, 11th among 254 women and 29th among all 370 racers.  It was not my best pace ever (8:12 min/mile) but I'm happy with my results and it was fun to run in Roger Williams Park and it made me happy to see my Dad, brother and nephews at the finish line.  I had to laugh though after the race when my family told me, "there was noone as old as you that came through before you.  Every girl that came through before you was young."  Of course they were right because the woman who finished in my age group before me was only thirty but I had to stress that I was not old!

Now, I'm back in Prague and I'm exhausted!  My jetlag when I arrived in the States was acceptable but my jetlag upon my return to Prague has been awful.  I have not been able to sleep at night.  Yesterday evening I was sitting on our couch and I put my head on the coffee table for a minute and I actually fell asleep I was so tired!  Unfortunately that sleepiness did not carry over to bedtime and I was up until 3AM!  The kids have been great though and have been entertaining themselves.  I have at least been able to relax during the day even with my kids home from school since they have school break all week.  This afternoon I decided to get out for a walk with the girls.  I figured it would be a good way to reward them for having such good behavior all morning and I'm also hoping it will help reset my circadian rythm by being out in the sunshine.  We had a fun walk through the woods on a beautiful fall day. 

Firewood

Last year we did not need to spend any money on firewood since our landlords had a big stack at the back of the yard that they said we could use.  We went through all that wood last year.  It was great to use the woodstove since it is connected to a back boiler which in turns sends hot water through all the radiators thereby heating the entire house.  Since our heat is electric heat and can be expensive it is nice to keep it as low as possible and mainly heat with the woodstove.  It is also just cozy and nice to have a fire going in the livingroom.  It has been quite chilly here for a while now and the girls have been asking for a fire.  We managed to come up with enough wood on Sunday to have a fire which was enough to take the slight chill out of the house.  The nights have been getting down into the high 30's (4 C) and the days have been in the high 50's (13-16 C) so the chill has definitely started to set into the house.  We have not yet turned our heat on since Jason and I like to hold off until November if possible before turning on the heat.  Knowing that the cold was setting in I knew I had to find somewhere to buy wood.  A friend gave me a name of a company outside of Prague that delivered wood.  We checked their prices and they were cheaper than going to Hornbach (a Home Depot type store) so I gave them a call and fumbled through my order.  They were going to deliver last Friday but they didn't so I waited for them to come today.  The company called me this morning and asked if they could come around 4pm which wasn't a good time since I had to pick the girls up so they offered 3pm which I took since I didn't want to have to wait another day.  I decided to run some errands before they came but of course as soon as I was in the check out counter at hornbach they called becuase they had arrived at 1pm!  I guess deliveries are the same everywhere in the world...you never really know what time they will arrive!  I rushed back home and showed the men where I wanted the wood.  The stacked it where I asked and then left.  It is nice not to have to stack the wood myself.  After I pick up the girls today I think it is time for a roaring fire!

Negative

Normally I don't like to receive negative news but I was very happy when I called the Public Health office today and they told me the the tick that was attached to Sofia tested negative for Lyme.  It is nice to know I can stop worrying about that.

The Latest Craze

No, not fashions or kids toys....this is more about me and my latest craziness.  I picked Sofia up from school yesterday and her PE teacher told me she found a tick on Sofia's head after swim practice.  This definitely sent me into a tailspin of crazy!  Having had lyme disease myself and having a parent who is now on a six month course of antibiotics for lyme disease it is something that is very real to me and quite stressful.  I definitely don't want my daughter to get lyme and not be diagnosed for years.  I immediately took the tick out of her head and put it in a bag.  I called her doctor and made an appointment for a bloodtest a month from now.  After getting off the phone I decided this was not acceptable and I called the doctor back.  Her doctor was good and told me to bring Sofia in to her office in the morning.  She also told me that she spoke with a collegue and found out where in Prague I could bring the tick to be tested.  Last night I got my ducks in a row (thanks mom) and had all my arguments in place as to why I believed she should start antibiotics as soon as possible.  I went to bed but did not sleep well and had a lot of dreams about ticks and other insects.  I obviously did not do a good job of hiding my concern from the kids since Ali woke up in the middle of the night in tears becuase she thought she had a tick on her head.  I dutifully checked her head and sent her back to bed. 

We headed to the doctor this morning and the doctor agreed to prescribe antibiotics for Sofia for a 12 day course of medication.  I then left to bring the tick to the Department of Public health to be tested.  I will know on Monday or Tuesday if the tick had lyme disease or not.  If it did have lyme then I will insist her medication be continued for an additional 16 days.  I'm not as concerned about getting the doctor's approval anymore though so it doesn't seem as stressful.  I'm hoping that the test on the tick itself will tell me it did not have Lyme and that Sofia is safe.