Of Moving, Maladies, and Other Miscellany

Moving

We're moving. Really, we are. And yet, no orders. We think we'll have them Monday. That's our prayer, anyway.

Thankfully Jim was able to get some sort of memorandum yesterday that has permitted us to make appointments to ship our household goods and car. So, at least we know that much. We'll be able to get plane tickets and such when we actually have orders... And once we have plane tickets to the mainland, we'll be able to start figuring out how to get to California, visit Illinois, and househunt, all on a much tighter timeline than we'd originally anticipated.

So, Monday. Monday? Let's hope Monday.

Maladies

Poor little Kathleen has been sick since we returned from Kauai. While we were there we noticed three funny spots on her back. At first we thought they might be bug bites; they were sort of clumped together as though some little insect had been munching on her on a trek across her shoulder blade. So we washed the bedsheets and didn't worry much more about it. At least, we didn't worry until the spots started showing up when we were home. On her neck and on her face. We took her to the doctor, who diagnosed it as a (non-chicken pox) virus, and instructed us (us being Daddy, who made the trek to Tripler -- Madeline and I were home for naptime) to keep her away from other kids for the weekend and to keep an eye on how things were going.

The spots didn't seem to bother her at first, but eventually she began to scratch at them and they got infected. (I can't tell you how quickly that seems to happen here. When the Childri were visiting, Madeline scratched her ear with her fingernail and within three days it was horribly infected. Kathleen's been treated for drug-resistant infections twice, one of which left a little scar. Ick.) Enter a nice, strong, pink antibiotic, which we're hoping will help clear up the infection, if not the virus.

I'd like to report that she's nearly recovered, but although we haven't gotten any new spots in two days, she had a 101 degree temperature at naptime today.

Our superhero pauses to drain the last of her Tylenol.
She's also resting her finger on a bag of frozen vegetables,
because she had taken a nasty spill and smashed her finger
between the floor and a pot lid. Ah, the trauma.

Mercifully, Madeline hasn't acquired any spots. However, she posted a temperature on and off last week. So, everyone's health has been a little iffy. We've been working on keeping a pretty strict sleeping schedule and hoping that rest and healthy food do the trick...

Miscellany

We sold the Jeep. The Army will ship one car to the mainland for us, and the Jeep just wasn't going to be it. We'll be taking our small, fuel-efficient little Versa instead, so the Jeep is staying in Hawaii -- with new owners. It happened so quickly we could hardly believe it. We listed it on Craigslist on Sunday night and by Monday evening it was gone. We'd thought that the interested party would look at it on Monday night and then we'd do the transfer on Tuesday, after we'd filled a chip (again!) in the windshield that had prevented it from passing the Hawaii safety inspection. But the buyer was so enthusiastic that he handed us cash and said he'd take care of the windshield and the inspection himself. Done.

It faithfully carried us around Europe, the mainland, and our island.
Sure, its air-conditioning had given up the ghost, but we told
ourselves we preferred the island breezes, anyway...

Mama and Daddy were sad to see the Jeep go. Honestly, he'd been a pretty good car. He carried us all over Europe. He brought Kathleen home from the hospital. He took us to the beach -- a lot. But no one was quite as sad to see him go as Kathleen. When we explained how it had been sold, she cried. And she still asks for it: "I want my Jeep!" Let's hope that whenever we replace the Jeep (with something big enough for carseats and people and groceries but small enough to fill with gas) she likes it just as much.

Although Madeline's been feeling under the weather, she's been very much on the move. She's discovered doors, especially cupboard doors, and loves to pull them open. She loves emptying the contents of the cupboards nearly as much as she loves opening those doors. And as if that weren't injecting enough danger in our lives, yesterday we turned around to discover Madeline doing this:

Watch out, world. Madeline can climb!