I spent my day under a tent, behind a refrigerated 16-wheeler passing out boston butts. The kids’ school holds an annual boston butt sale fundraiser. Today we had a total of 400 butts that were 80% presold orders, and only a handful were left for “walk-ups”. The day started out with bagging the meat, (which had been cooked the night before by the shriners),during which I got plenty of boston-butt juice in my shoes and under my feet… slimy… oh, but it sure smelled good. (and tasted good too!)
Finally, the mid afternoon rolled around and it was time to go inside to take a few pics of Olivia eating cupcakes with her classmates. It was very sweet to see just how excited she was when the kids sang to her. All these years of silence from Olivia has made it difficult to know when she is reacting to a situation. After the past year of instruction at her school, however, she has come out of her shell more and more, and little moments like today are such a victory. It satisfies my aching and yearning when I saw her directly respond to the singing and excitement.
dive right in
Mmmm
I Love You.
Cupcakes for Olivia
I’ll never forget the original OxiClean commercials and how amazing the product seemed…. turned out to be a great product. A few years ago I bought a tub of OxiClean and inside the tub was an order form for a Billy Mays bobble head… Man! I wish I had ordered it.
Billy had a captivating and penetrating voice that was as recognizable and commanding as Steve Irwin.
Between my father the retired m.d., and John, I have been having little conversations about healthcare reform. One of the topics we’ve discussed is patient records. From my experience, everything is very fragmented. John’s argument was that many hospitals have gone to digital filing systems. I argue, however, as great as that is there still exists a barrier between specialists at different locations, the patient, and the pharmacists. In my experience with a special needs child, I have witnessed the fragmentation of communication. There are records here at location “A”, records at location “B”, the doctor at location “C” wants to see the records from “A”, which means that I have to book an appointment for a “month from now” and in the meantime get ahold of the records from “A” to “C”’s office.
Here’s my analogy: A cop can pull you over, with your little driver’s license number he can pull up your record lickety-split right there on the spot. Oh! Warrant in the record. You’re under arrest.
On the flip side, let’s say you’re on vacation and need to go to the emergency room. It’s Saturday evening, and the ER doctor needs to see your history. But, wait, he can’t pull your history up on a database system like the motorcop, he’s gotta wait till Monday morning at 9:00am when the gal who works in the records office at the hospital in your hometown gets in and goes through the HPPA hoops before faxing or mailing the records.
I’m not saying that it has to be completely 100% run by the government… or that the government, either state or federal is part of this particular argument. Private organization or public organization aside, I believe that there needs to be some centralization of the health care system.
I have an appointment to take my daughter to see the geneticist. She saw him years ago, and he tested her for a few things, but he saw her in an outreach clinic here in town, and the blood work was done at the main hospital here in town. He doesn’t come to the outreach clinic anymore, and in addition to that the records would have been with the clinic here, not with him. Therefore, I am going to go through her records that I’ve kept here at the house and pull up some prior genetic test reports, and other exam reports, just so I can take them with me when I drive to see him at the medical college.
Now, wouldn’t it be a hell of a lot easier if there simply were a database or centralized, regulated (and yes safe for privacy purposes) patient history that the geneticist could pull up and read. Everything there, every note, every MRI, or EEG, or bloodwork?
Instead, I’ve got to hope to hell I’ve got that chromosome test from three years ago, just in an effort to make the most out of my appointment with him tomorrow, instead of him asking to “get a copy of the record” and come back in a month.
Portrait of Olivia on Paper, and this is AFTER I purged unnecessary files
Are You Ready?
Yawn, long drive home… no energy for posting anything other than one photo.
Good night.
yum yum
June is my favorite month. Sunny, warm without the inferno that comes in August, and the BEST thing about June, in Faye’s humble opinion, is BLUEBERRIES GALORE! Yumm yummm….. I stalk the produce stand, beg to know what day they will be bringing in another truckload of produce from the Georgia countryside….
Lush, juicy, large, sweet… pure heaven!
The childcare workers at my kids’ school probably feel a little differently about my blueberry habit, as it affects my children’s *ah-hem* bathroom breaks.
photo I snapped yesterday afternoon while joy-riding on some county roads...
photo, for the heck of it. the psa was filmed at the bethesda video studio, and in all the years of living here I have never been beyond the gates of Bethesda. It is beautiful back there! and the drive is under a classic canopy of live oaks... I couldn't help myself I just had to take a photo (in honor of John 
).
since I'm posting random landscape pics, i thought i'd throw in this pic i took a few weeks ago at Olympic Park in Atlanta...
Is it the developmental stage? 4 years old? Must be.
Sounds and noises in the dark… “they’re monsters”…. I tried to tell him they don’t exist… and then the conversation turned to why he needs to sleep in mama’s bed.
So is it monsters or just wanting to be with mama? Ohhhh, alright get in here, but be quiet
under the bed, outside, sounds all around
Oh! Classic Mom-daughter dynamic! What did I say? That the phone would ring within 30 minutes of my posting about what to wear? Well, HA! Maybe it was about 10 minutes, and I heard the phone jingling in the other room…. “Mom and Dad Home”, read the cellphone face.
Mom, with her decorator… and when her decorator speaks, well let’s just say the Ayatollah better be listening.
So, the decision was the teal blouse. It actually had a bit of a relaxed/wrinkled effect to it, and even though I have at times in my past worshipped Issey Miyake for blessing wrinkles, I knew that the wrinkly-ness of this blouse just MADE it look like Wal-Mart. So, I pressed it, donned some long white slacks and heels….
did “ma’ har’” and out the door I went. I am quite glad I grabbed the slacks and heels at the last minute because the studio had us sitting on a green stage, thus I really have no idea just how much of me could end up in the finished product.
quick photo booth before heading out the door, yeah that's a weird smile... I always feel so funny/cheesy when playing with photobooth... oh, and when I got to the studio, I took some of my bangs and parted them across and tucked them behind my ear...
I am going this afternoon to give a video testimonial for Olivia’s school. And, because “my mother raised me right” (that’s what she would say, or IS saying if she’s reading this right now, OR my phone will ring within 30 minutes of this posting and she WILL say, “you see, your mother raised you right”), I am trying to figure out what to wear…. I googled “what to wear for television interview” and found some great tips; don’t wear all white, don’t wear all black, avoid patterns, stay away from primary colors, pastels are okay, yadda yadda.
If you’re curious, you can find some fantastic info here.
This is not an interview with CNN, I know! However, if I’m gonna represent, well I can’t look like a frump or worse. The websites suggested video-ing yourself and watching with the sound off to see how much fidgeting you do, or where your eyes habitually wander… I am a hand-talker… ha! will have to keep them tied together….
I was thinking something with a collar may be a good choice, but all my collared shirts are white, I have one light blue one but it looks white on the video, and I don’t think I own a SINGLE polo shirt. So, I stopped by Wal-Mart (*gasp*!) and picked up a pink polo shirt and a teal woven… am just trying to decide which….
or I could go with the “mom-dress” that I have on, which is pink, and if I do my hair and put on some make-up I think it could pass.
Goodness watching this makes me realize that my sister and I share a lot of the same mannerisms…
and YES, mom! I know I am a little “mumbly” in the above videos, I was just babbling for the sake babbling.
My meat thermometer died, and so early last week I needed a new one a finally purchased the two part thermometer that I’ve been wanting…. you know the one? The probe stays in the meat and is attached to a display that you attach outside of the oven. Ahhhhh…. Just program what temp you are aiming for and it beeps when the desired temp is reached.
LOVE IT!!!! No more guessing on time. No more going back and forth to check the meat temp.
Also, I was without fresh lemons, and was in need of a quick marinade fix… there just happened to be some Mike’s Hard Lemonade in my fridge leftover from the trip to the beach…. sooo…. in it went.
Am curious to see how it turned out.
