Sosuna-o-Lata

So, I went for my CAT scan since the swelling in my lymph gland did not go down after two rounds of antibiotics.  To make a long story short, my GP sent me to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist and he’s sending me in for a fine needle biopsy next week.  I’m very, very scared right now.  I’m trying my best to stay positive but it’s hard.  I have to wait until Tuesday to get the procedure done and then wait a few more days for the results.

Some good news, I decided enough is enough with the cigarettes regardless what the outcome of the biopsy is.  I had my last smoke on 9/23/08 @ 5:00 and it’s been surprisingly easy, probably because I’m going through this scare right now but I hope I can stick to it and see it through. 

That’s all.  Thank goodness it’s Friday!

I read an article about futures trading and had no idea what it was before I read about it.  It is an investment involving speculating the cost of a consumer commodity going up or down in the future.  It’s usually food, raw materials, metals, oil and money. Every day, all over the world they’re being traded.  Investors try to buy a commodity at a low price and sell it at a higher price to make a profit. 

My awesome neighbors have their house up for sale and we’re not happy about it.  This is their second try at selling their house.  It’s a different situation, her husband is in Egypt working at a business that he and his brother own.  The wife is torn about moving back to Egypt or staying here in the states.  If she does move, they plan to return in two years or less.  I suggested they try to rent the house furnished so they will have a place to come back to instead of starting over again.  Their car is paid for, it can sit under a car cover and they can use it whenever they come to visit.  We’re in a great location, near the airport, so I’m sure they could find renters who are looking for short-term leases.  It also guarantees that they will live across the street from us when they return!

Here is part of the email I sent to the guidance counselor at my daughter’s school:

Erin and her friend went to Mr. Principal’s office to report the incident.  Mr. Principal responds with “I can’t believe I have to deal with this first thing in the morning on 9/11 when we should be supporting our troops and paying respects” which may not be his exact words but a response like that, to me, is VERY unacceptable.  He then spoke with two witnesses who were at the stop that morning and the conversation turned into one of the kids complaining that she had wanted to be friends with Erin but Erin didn’t want to be friends with her and so on.  THAT was not Erin’s issue; her issue is she’s afraid to go to her bus stop because she’s afraid of this kid that is in HIGH SCHOOL.  She doesn’t want to take the bus home for fear that she will be followed home.  This problem needs to be addressed.  Someone needs to talk to this kid to tell her to stop.  She now feels that she cannot go to the Principal with a problem because she will not be taken seriously.  Please look into this matter and let me know how it will be handled.

My email definitely shook things up a little, the principal called me less than an hour later.  He apologized and assured me that he does take the bullying very seriously.  He’ll be monitoring the situation and he has put a call into the high school so that the bully can be dealt with.  If it doesn’t stop, he said he’s been known to ride the bus and stand out at the bus stop in the morning.  No call from Erin this morning, so the bullying may have been put to an end.  Now I can worry about the average preteen stuff like acne treatment, homework, boys, etc.

“school bullying: the repeated infliction of injury or discomfort by on or more students up on another less powerful student, either by physical or more commonly verbal or psychological means.”

Do you know a bully?  My daughter met one this week.  She has become a victim of bullying. She’s a 7th grader being bullied by a High-School kid in 10th or 11th grade (the girls aren’t sure which it is).  This is happening at the bus stop.  Unfortunately, the middle school and high school kids take the bus together.  She reported it to the school principal but he didn’t take it too seriously which made me furious!  My first thought was to call him and give him a piece of my mind but decided to wait until I calmed down a bit.  I just drafted a letter to forward to the appropriate people, it outlines the incident and the meeting with the principal.  I’m going to post it later today after it’s final and I remove names.  Just wait until you see how it was handled.

If you’re a business owner and deal with mass production of your products then I’m sure you use labels.  Label World offers labels for a variety of products like Food Label, Health and Beauty, Industrial, Promotional and several other industries.  Label World has been printing custom labels for over 20 years.  Keep in mind that the labels are intended for large businesses as they are manufactured on a wide scale basis.

I took Erin for her physical yesterday so she could try out for school soccer this year, she got a clean bill of health.  The doctor did notice that she may have a touch of nearsightedness.  So, we’ll be making an appointment for an eye exam.  Poor kid, first she’s told she need braces and now she may need glasses.

Later in the day, I visited my doctor.  I’ve had this lump on my neck for a few months now, turns out it’s only a cyst and nothing to worry about.  He drained it a bit yesterday, gave me some antibiotics.  If it’s not gone in 7 days, he’ll surgically remove it, no biggie.  This past weekend I noticed the other side of my neck was itchy and seemed to be swollen so I had him look at that as well.  That, he said, is most-likely a bacterial infection in my gland and the antibiotics should clear it up.  If not, he’s sending me for a CAT Scan.  Let’s hope it clears up by Tuesday!

Last year I purchased a Dymo Label Maker to organize my coupons.  I bought a big accordion file and a small coupon organizer and labeled the tabs accordingly.  The big accordion file houses the coupon flyers and the local sales circulars.  I’ve labeled them with the Dymo Label Maker alphabetically and by date.  The smaller coupon organizer is what I take to the grocery stores with me and those coupons are organized by type:  Beauty, Canned Goods, Dairy, Frozen, Pet, etc.  I find the labels very helpful as they are bold type and uniformly written making them really easy to read.

We also used the Dymo Label Maker to make labels for my daughters file folders for school.  Since entering middle school, she’s needed to be more organized with many more supplies.  She made labels for her different subjects and placed them on the spines of her binders so she can easily grab the appropriate one from one class to the next.  She now gets text books for each subject which we have to cover so she made labels for the books as well.  The label maker even has symbols so she can make pretty little pictures next to what she’s typed on the labels.  The Dymo Label Maker makes organization fun!

We ended up going to the Hebron Fair Friday night to see the Demolition Derby.  It was mine and my kids first time ever attending one and we had such a great time.  Carl, my husband, had mentioned that one of his friends, Meatball, might be in it and he was.  Meatball didn’t win but he certainly tried.  On the ride home, both of my kids expressed their desire to enter the Demolition Derby when they’re old enough.  My daughter already knows how she wants to decorate the car.  There are many years before they can drive, we probably won’t hear about the Derby again.