Long, Long, Long Day

So I'm back at the Home and Garden show (only a little late due to an unfortunate arguement with my GPS system. It's almost noon and I managed to order lunch and make it through the first two hours. Now just 8 more to go. Good thing I've got a super friendly booth neighbor who likes to chat, has similar tastes in books and is about as bored as I am. Guess I'll soon get started on some work if the traffic slows down anymore. Guess anyone reading today should be prepared for multiple updates! :)

Karma

Be careful what you wish for! During the last few weeks when Alex was cranky and I was beyond exhausted I was wishing for some good uninterrupted sleep! Major sleep! College style, sleep til noon sleep. And what did God send me? Three days and two nights in Fort Worth, in a lovely hotel, a large bed all to myself for maximum uninterrupted sleep pleasure...and He paid my way with a business trip to work the Fort Worth Home and Garden Show.

I've worked lots of these on and off over the last 5 years but never have they moved so slow, been so boring. COME ON! I feel like I've logged hours and yet I still have hours to go. The irony is that I'll probably have so much spare energy that tonight I won't be able to sleep!

PS. Check out the neat giveaway over at Only Sometimes Clever, my favorite Gluten Free resource.

Begone Germs, Go Haunt Another Household!

Good Grief!

I know this is the worst cold and flu season* in years. I know I should have gotten the whole family flu shots.** I know that the first year of school/daycare is a sickly year while kiddos "build" their immune system.***

My husband is blaming our new house, my son is just made he can't go back to school, and I'm going bonkers trying to keep both of them from driving me nutso! A cold I could deal with , the flu I did deal with but in the last few months Alex has had a chronic sinus infection, a CT Sinus Scan for that infection, Sinus surgery and his adenoids removed and then this week an unknown viral bug that sent his temp up to 103 scary degrees. Meanwhile during that same time Eric has caught the flu, a cold and currently has either a stomach virus or food poisoning. I'm pretty healthy and have gotten away with some wicked laryngitis, a massive sinus infection, and possibly the flu. As I said GOOD GRIEF!

Tomorrow Alex can finally go back to school and while Eric is sleeping this off upstairs I'm airing out the house. My luck and Murphy's Law**** says that this will blow out the current germs and out luck bring in some new ones.

*According to our pediatrician :)
**Not only do I hate shots, but the few times I have caved to pressure and gotten the flu shot were the only times I got the flu. I'll take my chances thank you!
***Don't get me started on my soapbox about this. For the record I am from the school of thought that kids have an immune system (we're born with one!) and frequent exposure to kids who don't belong at school due to sickness but are there anyways due to our screwed up work system that doesn't take kindly to parents being parents when their kids are sick tears that immune system down rapidly.

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What a Week

Image via Wikipedia

So it's been a CRAZY few weeks. The flu, Alex's surgery, general chaos at work and possibly worst of all, dealing with Dell Customer Service :(.

So about a month ago we found out that Alex had incredibly blocked sinuses that 2 months of antibiotics had done nothing for. A Sinus CT Scan later we were meeting with a pediatric ENT. He spent the first 10 minutes telling me how we would probably need a stronger course of antibiotics and possibly some nose spray and in most cases that clears everything up. I gave him a quick rundown on everything we had tried and he left the room to review the CT scans. A few minutes later he was back asking me to come check them out. Turns out every sinus cavity he has is blocked up and we're now looking at sinus surgery. A few more scan views shows he also has adeniods 3 times the normal size and they need to come out too. I went into denial mode and didn't even think about having to put my little baby in surgery until the week before.

I didn't have much time to dwell on it anyways since our entire family had come down with the flu. Eric canceled his travel and we all camped on the couch and bonded to WAY to many Diego and Dora episodes. Fast forward a miserable week and we were only left witha week to prepare Alex. We visited the surgery center, talked about how much better he would feel, did everything we could to make it less scary. And then all my hard work was worthless when they gave him versed. It helps keep them calm when they take the kiddos back to surgery but no one warned us that he would be hysterical coming out of surgery. It was a horrible experience but we kept telling ourselves that in the end it was for the best since it would make Alex healthier.

So two weeks later he's been sick the whole time, and now after a marathon week at the dr's office (we've been to six different doctors offices in 5 days between the two of us) we're due in tomorrow for another flu test. BAH

My experience with Dell is worthy of a whole other post, and a pictures and video post is coming soon staring lots of Alex, so stay tuned. You can stay updated by "subscribing" to the site, or click the link when we send out update notifications by email!

Telecommuting Tuesdays

Image via CrunchBase

Boy is the world buzzing right now with a fascinating new way to save your company some money! The articles, posts and emails I've gotten lately touting telecommuting would make you think someone came up with this genius idea yesterday!

Business Week ran a nifty story that I enjoyed enough to forward to some co-workers (maybe I can subvert the entire office into working from home. Then I'll be the resident expert! WOOHOO.) Shortly after that crossed my desk I got some very interesting statistics about telecommuting.

The guys over at Undress for Success reported
• In response to high gas prices, almost one in four employers are planning to offer a telecommuting option for their employees within the next six months (8/08) and 42% already have. (Mercer’s 2008 Gas Price Impact SnapShot™ Survey)

I'm definitely seeing an increase in those telecommuting. My mother in law now works from home, my husband's field offers a lot of home based telecommuting opportunities, and a few of my co-workers are quietly edging their way out the office door. Although some employers still have a fear of Facebook stalking, slacker employees, most will find that losing the commute allows those of us logging in from home to accomplish far more from the couch than we ever did in the cube. And thanks to instant messaging services like Skype I can stay in touch with colleagues without the commute.

While I'm rambling about Skype let me just say that my husband travels for work and boy do I LOVE Skype for the weeks when he is gone. Our toddler can get a chance to see him, and even though he's hundreds of miles away, the video option (FREE, the whole darn service is FREE) means that he's always here for evening prayers.

Whether you already telecommute or are just trying to figure out how to get a little more flexibility in your day embrace the free services that are everywhere on the web for those of us logging in from home. Some of my absolute faves are:

• Skype
• Fax Zero
• Free Conference Calls
• Google for everything from forms, spreadsheets, tracking websites
• Free PDF Hosting
• Fake Phone Calls (has nothing to do with the business world but is freaking hilarious!)

Working from home = easy access to the fridge

Cover via Amazon

It's been a crazy few weeks, with the flu taking out our entire house for a week, then playing catchup for a week then back out for Alex's surgery. Not exactly the best lifestyle for sticking with a good eating and workout routine. The snacks in the fridge have been calling my name and believe me that's not a good thing.

I read Jen Lancaster's Such a Pretty Fat book this week and thank goodness for her snarky comments that would roll around in my head when I was faced with that monumental decision...To open the fridge or to not open the fridge! :)

To all those fighting the good fight every day, have a piece of extra sugar free gum on me!

Victory is Mine...It's a Great Morning Victory is Mine!

Any West Wing fans out there?

I've been trying for weeks to manage some decent, edible gluten free baking. My husband is one of those strange people who have endless willpower to give stuff up if he needs to (drives me batty!) and I feel bad when he eats the same thing day in and day out for breakfast. This is the third round of biscuits that I have tried and boy do I have to give a shout out to eat at joe's.

They were great biscuits, made up quick and the whole family gobbled them down. I was virtuous and only had one along with my protein shake the voodoo doctors are recommending.

I'm not sure I've mentioned my Voodoo doctors here. I have been struggling to lose weight ever since I was put on steroids a few years ago. Nothing seems to work and I have tried everything from Weight Watchers to South Beach. Atkins didn't go over well since I don't really like cheese that much, and Low GI foods work until the sweet cravings hit. My well respected nutritionists advice was to eat less and less until I was trying to figure out how to manage a workout routine on 1400 calories a day. Fast forward a few months and a friend recommends that I get my base metabolic rate tested to see how many calories I'm burning on an average day. Turns out that magic number is 1730 calories so eating anything less than that and I should be able to lay in bed all day and lose weight...and that's so not happening! I got my metabolism tested at an alternative pharmacy and the lady who tested it for me is a naturopath who for a measly $20 per visit can work with people to develop natural remedies to their problems (and that's right up my ally!).

I came home from a 2 hour consultation, several tests and some great recommendations to tell dear old hubby all about it. I could see the smirk before I even got to the cool test where I put my hand on a silver shaped disc and it analyzed my skin to see what I was nutritionally deficient in. Throw in there that they want me to drink special oxygenated water and I realized I had some convincing to do. It was about that point that he began calling them my Voodoo doctors and like all bad nick names it stuck like Elmer's glue.

On a randomly related note, if you like to read and like funny, witty, somewhat snarky books I'm currently laughing my tail off at Jen Lancaster's Such a Pretty Fat. :)