Sparkly Clean

You know, it really is hard to get people to understand that there is more to milk than dairy. Sometimes I make stupid mistakes, or totally innocent ones. But while doing a little trick or treating with bigger kids at a campground over the weekend, we stayed back and mostly watched, and several people tried to get us to take candy. Which was nice. But occasionally I would say "no thanks, she's allergic to dairy" and the one woman said "well here, she can have M&M's!" he. it was hard not to laugh. I mean seriously, who knew that chocolate was made with milk! I did make a mistake and let some animal crackers through the cracks, without checking, and of course, they had powdered milk in them (Barnum Circus crackers are the only ones that don't bother her) and last week we accidentally gave her a cucumber dipped in ranch without thinking. Both wreaked havoc on her poor bottom. Cracking, bleeding, the whole deal. and dark, pasty poop. Poor baby.

Her full body rash is looking more like eczema every day. I have put a call into the ped as "tomorrow" it will be three weeks since essentially removing dairy from her diet (except for a couple of slipups) and the rash on her body has gotten worse, and looks exactly like my eczema. I have asked for a referral to a dermatologist or an allergist. how long do we mess around with an allergy and an "unidentified" full body rash? I mean, we dealt with the diaper rash for 6 months before i suggested a dairy allergy, and the full body rash has been there for over a month now. I am done messing around. Mom has had enough.

So on top of all that, she was inadvertently exposed to Hand Foot and Mouth Disease on Saturday. I keep telling myself it happens, it issn't my fault, I didn't know, and on top of all that, of she had remained in daycare she already would have had it. But I am still twiddling my thumbs through the 3-7 day incubation period, watching for the fever, etc. Can this child's body handle another rash? ack. We had a great time going to visit Cari and her family at their camping site at the campground. There were older kids everywhere and they all seemed to like Ardyn and want to play with her. A couple of times I had to step in because some of the kids were trying to feed her random snacks (all dairy hazards I am sure!) but they were really very good with her. One girl was probably 10 or so and came over to play. She offered to walk around the site with Ardyn. She was very polite, and gentle, and patient, and never let Ardyn get down in the dirt or get out of my sight. it was relaxing and Ardyn was enjoying it. She held the older girl's hands and played with her, sat on her lap, etc. Then in conversation we overheard the girl say she wasn't feeling well and Cari asked her what was wrong and she let out that she was two days infected withhand foot and mouth disease and showed us the lesions on her hands that were just starting. I felt bad for her because I could tell that she had never thought about infecting Ardyn, but of course as a mom I had this sinking feeling of not having protected Ardyn. And then I worried about getting it myself, and while pregnant to boot. But of course they say that adults don't usually get it, although they CAN get it.

But overall we had a great time at the campgrounds, good foor, warm campfire, watching older kids run around in costumes.... Ardyn fell asleep in front of the campfire. She got a glow stick while trick or treating. She loved that! We tied it to her stroller. I have pictures that I need to upload. But since I am not online at home, it won't be today!

Yesterday we went out for brunch with evan, which was nice, and today we took my dad (grandpa Dave) to pick up his new car (new to him) because he has hit two deer in the past three weeks, which was the third deer he has hit with his bonneville, and finally it is to the point of no return. So he bought a new work car.

Every Fall we get mice in our house. We have an old house. Built in the 1920's and there are plenty of ways for a mouse to sneak in. We have a cornfield in our backyard too, which doesn't help. We have all our food in tupperware containers. We have glue traps, ultrasonic pest repellers plugged in in two rooms, and we have also used poison in the past. when the damn things want to be there, we have a hell of a time getting rid of them. I am not afraid of mice, but I despise mouse poop. This past week they got into the cupboard that has nothing but glass pyrex containers and drink pitchers, and 1 bottle of canola oil (that's too tall to fit in any of the above cupboards) and since there was nothing to EAT in there, the damn things ate the label off the canola oil bottle. Well, about two weeks ago, the cleaning people came. And while I try to stay on top of the mouse poop, there are bound to be a piece or two that I miss, and the cleaning woman got a little upset with me and asked "when we were going to get our mouse problem under control" as if I could just snap my fingers. I told her that we were using glue traps to no avail. I hate to use poison with both the dogs and Ardyn in the house, and also because then you just have stinking deal mice in your walls and how gross is that, especially when you are pregnant and gag at everything stinky. She told me "I don't DO mouse poop." and it kinda sounded like a threat. I just played it off, and said "Oh, I know. I wish we could catch them!" Then today she called me (they are at my house) and I returned her call. Evan had forgotten to leave their check.

Her voicemail to me was dripping with attitude. I called her right back and apologized that Evan had forgotten to write the check and asked her if she would like to leave us a self addressed envelope and we would send it to her right away. She said she would, and then continued to very harshly ask "when are you getting your mouse problem taken care of" and continued to tell me that she doesn't deal with mouse droppings and that she wouldn't be touching them because today is "not a mouse poop kinda day." I understand that, but at the same time I get the feeling that for all the YEARS they have been our cleaning people, they are recently trying to find reasons to drop us. All they have to say is "we won't be able to clean for you anymore." To be quite frank, I am really tired of being given attitude over things like mouse poop. But also when they started cleaning for us, we had no kids, one dog and both worked full time. Our lives have drastically changed. I don't believe that they have children, and so they don't understand what it's like to have a 1 year old and be pregnant and tired, and to have two dogs (who by the way are only allowed on the front porch right now and not in the house) and to really have more important things to do than lose sleep over a bit of mouse poop. I tried to tell her that we currently have traps, ultrasonic pest things plugged in, AND all of our food in tupperware, on top of having all dirty dishes inside the dishwasher... so we are doing what we can except for the potential Poisoning of a family member over some mouse shit. Basically I am upset because she is trying to make me feel like we are filthy because we have mice in the fall. Seriously? I have better things to worry about. And seriously, I think it's time to get different cleaning people. People who won't have a heart attack if they find a dirty sock under the bed or a cheerio on the floor. I mean I have the damn roomba that vacuums every day. How seriously filthy can it be? And when I pay them $65 every two weeks for 2 hours of cleaning, I figure we ought to be able to live in our house and I shouldn't have to worry about cleaning before they come to clean. I already run around like a nutcase picking up and organizing and making sure that all of Ardyn's toys are put away and that anything on the floor is up and out of their way (like the bigger toys, the bouncing Zebra, the ride-on car, the wheeled horse, etc) and I try to be understanding and don't say a word when for 6 weeks straight the top of Ardyn's bookshelf (which is like 4 foot high and mounted on the wall) never gets dusted, even when I remove everything from it in case they don't want to pick up the book and the frame and the stuffed bunny that's up there. And when I know that in the past six months they have never dusted the tops of the two wall shelves in the living room. maybe the problem is that I never say a word? I appreciate my cleaning people, but at the same time, I am tired of worrying that they might see something that will send them heading for the hills. Like, what if I don't get all the hair picked out of the shower drain? Or what if they find that sippy cup that I can't figure out WHERE my daughter left it last? I am pretty good at being on top of things, but spending quality and fun time with my daughter is my priority. And THAT is why I still pay for someone to clean. Because that is what's important to me and I intend to keep it that way. My house isn't filthy. But it is cluttered. But I take lots of time before they come to be sure that the important surfaces are visible, and I tell them that if the dining room table is cluttered, not to worry about it. They almost never have to clean the office desk or the scrapbook table, because they are always full of projects in progress or paperwork. I don't fault them for any of that. My mom mentioned that they never dust one of my end tables, and Evan mentioned that they never dust the arms or the backs of the leather sofa and loveseat. I notice these things, but I don't stress about them. If it bothers me I just do it myself later. I guess it doesn't matter to me if you don't get to everything every time you are cleaning, just as long as at least once a month, the dust gets off here and there. And seriously, I do get frustrated when I pay them for 2 hours and I get home and an hour and a half later, not only are they gone, but they had to pick up all their supplies and pack them up and then leave. I just figure that if they still had 30 minutes to go, why not dust that shelf or that corner end table? Ugh. Sorry. Enough ranting. Now they are probably going to read my blog and be all mad that I was "talking trash." They will probably post about how that one time my husband left his gum in the shower (WTF?!) and I didn't catch it in time. Or maybe about the time that somehow in some wild abandon a pair of my pajama pants entertwined with dirty underwear found their way under my bed, and *gasp* I didn't look under there for two weeks until they cleaned and found them. Jeez. I swear life is too short for this crap!

Please share your cleaning people stories. Am I the lone ranger here?