Ewww Gross

This has been a very eventful week. Monday was supposed to be my really busy running all over the place day. The kids have therapy at school and after that Matthew had a doctor appointment at 1. Swimming lessons were at 4 and Carolyn gets home at 3:15 so the plan was for Matthew to come home at 11:05, take all kids to school for therapy, leave Carolyn there for preschool, stop by McDonald's for something for Matthew to eat, drive to SF for the appointment, come home around 2, attempt to do a nap (Andrew not me), wait for Carolyn to get off the van and head out for swimming lessons. As you would guess, that didn't quite happen. A snowstorm was in the forecast for that day and was supposed to hit between 1 and 3. When I left for the school the sky was grey and there were a few snow flurries. I got there and as soon as we started, there was an announcement over the PA for teachers to check e-mail. Yes, they decided to do a 1pm dismissal which meant no preschool. OK, I'll just take all 3 kids to the appointment and hope the doctor isn't too miffed. But by the time I was leaving the school at 12:15 the wind was blowing like crazy and snow was coming down. YUCK! I was having some doubts as to my master plan so I decided to do McDonald's and see how bad things were. In town was yucky and I then decided that there was no way I was going to drive in this weather with small children. I went home and rescheduled the appointment. Unfortunately, the next available was in March. I called about the swimming lessons and was told that the Wellness Center only closes when the Mall closes. The mall does not close very often. I still decided that there was no way I was going out in the weather so I called hubby to let him know what was going on and to remind him of the blizzard warning up in Brookings so class up there might not be that good of an idea. He did not go. Of course by the time he did get home from work the sky was clear, the moon was out and the roads were pretty decent. We (he) decided that we should do our cardio kickbox class and let Matthew do his fitness class so we loaded everyone up and off we went. Tuesday morning was not much better and school had a two hour late start. No school for Matthew so he got to sleep in. The bus driver didn't realize that there was no Kindergarten and showed up at 10 to get Matthew. Carolyn did have school and Matthew did have his speech and OT so Andrew and I ran over to the post office and I finally mailed my Christmas letters. One word of caution...we did not get the bad letter finished so those of you who usually enjoy our "so wrong" sense of humor will have to wait until next year. The weather was still pretty crappy but we have Tae Kwan Do testing at the end of the month so off we went. I'm glad Jim was driving because if it was up to me, we would have stayed home. Wednesday was finally sunny but just because the sun is shining doesn't mean that it is warm out. I did not have anywhere to go so I had plans to catch up on housework and get the laundry under control. When I went down to the laundry room I noticed a funny smell. I also looked over to where the cat's area is and noticed that it looked messier than usual.. Thinking the kids had been trying to feed the cat again or Andrew had been playing in the cat's water dish I got a paper towel and prepared to do a quick clean up. I quickly realized that this mess was not something the kids did. It smelled terrible like a cross between cat poop and cat vomit and the spots where I thought were water spills were actually slimy and smelly. We have a dark floor so I have no idea what it actually looked like. What I thought was spilled cat food was actually places where the cat had thrown up her food. The cat had been acting a little funny the past few days and on Wednesday she was pretty content to stay in her room and sleep so I knew something wasn't quite right. New plan...vet appointment. Matthew and Andrew came with me and we took Trina to her favorite place in the whole world (not) to see what was wrong. The verdict, tapeworms. In fact, she had several attached to her fur in the back and the vet had to pick them off. She was also explaining to me that a large or several large tapeworms would cause intestinal distress and the cat would be trying to pass it or them out either by vomiting or the other route. This is Ewww Gross of my title. Worms gross me out and anything in the internal parasite category does double gross out duty. I really like this vet, she has a wonderful sense of humor and spends time explaining things to you. She did tell me that she was pretty sure it was worms and not something Trina swallowed like a string that was causing the problem. Trina got a very delicious pill to swallow. The vet was the one who did the worming--yeah!!! and I was sent home with Pepto Bismol to give her a few hours later. Ever try to give Pepto Bismol to a cat? I wore half of it and the floor looked like something pink died. The other thing I really like about this vet is that she charges reasonable prices for her services. I paid $31 for the exam and treatment. Of course hubby mentioned that he had a 10 cent cure for the worms. I managed to make it home in time for Andrew to nap while I finished up the cleaning downstairs. I had used all of my litter on Sunday when I did the litter box but fortunately I still had some cheap stuff laying around so I was able to bleach out the litter box and put enough in for the night. We did swimming lessons and then met up with Jim at Hy-Vee for supper. Hubby wanted to work out and Matthew had fitness class. Because Andrew had used up an hour of nursery time out of the two hours they allow I decided to take him and run to Wal-Mart for a few things like kitty litter. It is so much easier to do that store with one kid instead of three. We got to the check out line and Andrew was doing his best cute, smiling and flirting with the cashier. All was going great until she asked me if Andrew was my grandson. GRANDSON???? WTF!!!!!!!! I answered "nope, he's mine" and let that stand. She was a little bit off her rocker anyway but do I really look old enough to be a grandma? I guess I should schedule the botox and color treatment. Hubby got a great laugh out of that one. Today I managed to go grocery shopping and did not get mistaken for a grandmother so I was very happy. I'm only hoping that this cold weather goes away. This morning was a balmy -25 with a forecast high of -3. I shouldn't complain too much. If I was still living by Aberdeen then I would have woken up to -45. Adding insult to injury is the fact that over on the other side of the state my parents are enjoying 50 degree weather. Oh well I guess that's winter in South Dakota.