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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Silver Linings

"It's nice that our baby has no hair because you can easily see the fleas on her."

That's Alex, trying to be positive in the face of a really negative day.

For starters, our baby is teething. Like, for reals. She cut one tooth on Thursday, and it feels like she's working on two or three more. The past two nights I've slept in intervals of 7 to 15 minutes. The Bean makes it through about 10 minutes before writhing and crying out in pain. We've done Tylenol, we've got the amber teething necklace, we've even tried bourbon on the gums. I think it's just a ride to ride. Plus we got off easy (in fact, scot-free) with those first two teeth.

Secondly, we have fleas. Again. For the third time, in fact. And did I mention Gizzy also has pink eye? Awesome. Anyone who's ever had fleas in their home knows what a nightmare it is. Not a bed bug sort of nightmare, but still, there's a psychological component to it for sure. We are already vacuuming almost daily, we already sprayed with some sort of pesticide (awesome when you had a crawling baby, right?) and vacated our entire house, and now we've put in a call with a pest control company. Which is a total racket, to say the least. Fortunately, my father appreciates waging war on the earth's more hateful creatures, so he's more than happy to help us bomb the place instead of aging some kid $350 to do it.

Thirdly, Alex indeed needs knee surgery. He tore his ACL all the way through. His MCL is partially torn. His lateral meniscus is partially torn. And he has a large bone bruise. The recommendation for the surgical repair of the ACL didn't come as much of a surprise, really, but we were hoping to get it taken care of sooner than later. Turns out Kaiser is booked out until May, so instead of hikes and biking and outdoor adventures this summer, Alex will be working to rehab his knee instead. Another summer spent no further than a quarter-mile from home, it seems.

And lastly, finances. We are spending well beyond our means, even if we included my future part time salary. We already thought we were reeling it in, but it looks like our budget needs a Suze Orman style overhaul. But when your rent/mortgage is half of your take-home pay, it's an uphill battle we are fighting. How the hell does everyone else seem to do it? We don't feel as though our desires are all that extravagant - a modest home, we'd like a comfortable reliable car, to finance our hobbies (we don't consider hiking, sewing, and cheapo DIY house projects to be out of the realm of possibility),the occasional $30 dinner out. In a fit of stress the other night, we had a hair brained idea to make a documentary called, "How the hell does everyone do it?" We have since tabled that brainstorm.

But mostly, it's my attitude. It needs a serious adjustment. As my dad would say, "it's not as good as it could be, but it's not as bad as it gets."

Suffice it to say, I'm happy to see February go. Lets hope March brings fewer of life's inconveniences.

1 comment:

  1. At the risk of sounding TOTALLY cliche - this too shall pass my friend. I for one, have a hard time remembering that life is a series of phases. Some harder than others - but none are permanent. You guys are awesome and will find a way to get through to the next AWESOME phase of your lives.

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