Happy April’s Fool’s Day! This picture isn’t a joke though- Ryan and Cole goofing around after their bath and before bed:
Wordless Wednesday has a variety of pictures- check them out.
Category: Ryan
Three weeks ago, Ryan had a cold. Just a runny nose and a cough. A few days later, he was complaining of ear pain. After his awful experiences with ear infections and a ruptured ear drum last year, the morning he said he had ear pain I called our doctor. We haven’t been to the doctor at all this year, and were told he was out for the day. It was a Friday, and I did not want Ryan to be suffering from an ear infection over the weekend without being on antibiotics.
With our regular doctor out, we had the privilege of our first urgent care visit for the year. The doctor looked in Ryan’s ears and said he had raging infection in one of them. I had to tell her that he is allergic to almost all antibiotics and told her the name of the drug that he can take. I had called my pharmacy that morning to get the name and the spelling of the drug. The doctor told me she had never heard of that drug. She said she would have to go look it up in “The Drug Book.” (this really isn’t the name of the book, but evidently it is that book that tells the medical community everything about drugs.)
So Ryan, Cole and I waited. I tried to keep Cole from climbing up on the sink, to turn on the water. (He is obsessed with sinks and water lately). The doctor finally came back and asked me for the spelling of the drug again. She had “The Drug Book” with her, and showed me there was no drug listed in it by the name I gave her. I asked her if she could call the pharmacy and ask them. She said she would, and we were once again waiting.
This time Cole declared he was hungry and just wanted to go eat. It was lunchtime, and there is nothing worse than waiting at the doctor with sick and hungry kids. About half an hour later, the doctor came back and told me she had called the prescription in- the drug was spelled with a ‘C’ not an ‘S’ as I had told her. I had read the spelling back to the pharmacy, but obviously something got lost in translation. After paying the urgent care center double what we usually pay our doctor, we were off to the pharmacy to get Ryan his medicine.
The pharmacy has a drive-through and I was telling Cole we would get Ryan’s medicine and be home in fifteen minutes. It took ten minutes for the pharmacist to even come to the window, and another fifteen minutes for her to check and then finally tell me they didn’t have enough of this medicine to fulfill the prescription. She also informed me that the strength the doctor had written the prescription for didn’t come in generic- it only came in the name brand-expensive form. She asked me what I wanted to do.
I wanted to ask her why she was asking me- isn’t she the pharmacist that paid a ton of money to go to pharmacy school to learn about drugs? I wanted to ask her if she would let me rewrite the doctor’s prescription for the generic dose? I wanted to ask her doesn’t she get paid to make these types of decisions? Instead I told her, I didn’t know- I just wanted the medicine for my son- what did she recommend? She told me she had enough to get us through the weekend, but then I’d have to come back on Monday to get more. Brilliant! I am so glad we spent time having the conversation that she didn’t have the drug in the first place.
Most people would rip the dang bottle of medicine from the pharmacist’s hands, and peel out of there as fast as she could. But my son hates the way this medicine tastes. I tasted it last year and it was a little better tasting than glue and chalk powder mixed together. So I threw the pharmacy into a frenzy- I asked if they could add flavoring to the medicine. The pharmacist looked liked I asked her to walk to Denver to get the medicine.
She asked me what flavor. Ryan yelled from the back, “Grape.” The pharmacist told me to hold on- she had to go consult “The Drug Book.” I wondered if the people who make “The Drug Book” are laughing their a**es off somewhere. Seriously- doctors and pharmacists spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to school to learn all this, and at the end of the day their answers are in a $29.99 book. It has to be the greatest scam of all time.
Fifteen minutes later, which must be the mandated time to look up a drug in “The Drug Book,” the pharmacist told me she could add cherry flavoring no problem, but not grape. She would have to get an approval for the grape flavoring. I told her to just add the cherry. Then she told me it would be at least five hours before they could do it, but since I had to wait that long, they could go ahead and get the approval from the drug manufacturer and add the grape flavoring after all.
At this point I was exhausted and needed a nap as badly as Cole, who had now fallen asleep in his car seat. While I was trying to wake him up (so he’d take his real nap) the pharmacist told me that I could come back after five, get the one bottle of medicine, but they would have to mix the flavoring in it, after I got here. Then I would come back on Monday, and get the rest.
Thirty-five minutes later, two very hungry and half-asleep boys (not to mention their mother), drove away with NO medicine. But Ryan was going to have grape flavor in the medicine after all of that- you had better believe it!
A few hours later, I packed all of us back in the car to go get this Holy Grail of grape medicine. I pulled up and this time it was a pharmacy tech. She spent ten minutes looking for the prescription and then told me grape flavoring was not allowed. I asked her if I could speak to the pharmacist. A few minutes later a new pharmacist, who was way to young to have any of his own children, came to the window and I started in with our case. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he said, “Well, let me go look this up in The Drug Book,” but I was. And they wonder why we have “mommy brain?”
Twenty minutes later, I had Ryan’s GRAPE flavored medicine but a headache thinking I was going to have to go through this all over again on Monday. The pharmacy tech asked me if there was anything else they could do for me and I asked them to order me “The Drug Book.” She looked at me like I had truly gone off the deep end- and I can’t blame her. I can’t believe getting one prescription in 2009 for an ear infection involves consulting “The Drug Book” four times. I should be glad everyone is so careful and conscientious- and I am- but really, it is a bit much.
I wish I could say that was it-end of story, but tonight Ryan said his ear was hurting again, “just like last time.” Our doctor is out this week on vacation, and I know tomorrow, I will spend at least two hours waiting while “The Drug Book” is consulted once again. Yes, somewhere in the book publishing business, the publishers of “The Drug Book” are laughing their a**es off.
Last week, I dropped off Ryan’s kindergarten registration packet at the school he will be attending. It seemed surreal that in five months, my baby boy will be in kindergarten. When did he get that big? Where has the time gone?
I was talking to one of my friends, Melissa, whose son will also be starting kindergarten in August, and we were discussing how fast the time is going- much more so now, than even when they were babies. We were kidding that pretty soon our sons will be graduating from high school. I said then we will be look back and asking, didn’t it just seem like they were starting kindergarten?
Thinking about Ryan growing older, used to make me very sad. I wanted to keep him little forever. Sometimes I still do. There is nothing in the world that compares to cuddling your sweet, innocent, baby, and holding that life in your arms close to you- knowing that your baby is completely, and purely yours. I had so many moments like that with both Ryan and Cole, that I never wanted to end. I would still be holding them close to me if I could. Those baby days seem so long ago, and yet the memories of them are never distant in my mind. There is a saying regarding children, ‘the days are long, but the years are short,’ which I find very accurate.
I can’t keep my children babies forever, and they will start kindergarten, middle school, high school, college- and life, despite my wanting to still be sitting with them in a glider, holding them close, and rocking them to sleep. But as I see the little boy that Ryan has grown into, I can’t help but be happy he isn’t a baby anymore. Both boys are full of life, laughter, and energy- so much energy. They are growing into the people they are to become.
At night, Ryan hugs me goodnight, and doesn’t let go, even when I start to pull away, and Cole asks me to hold his hand, as he falls asleep. Despite the oldest boy starting kindergarten in a few short months, my heart fills with so much love for them, and I know that I still have my babies- the only thing that has changed is their size, and that is just as it should be.
We took a drive up to Estes Park, today. Ryan loved throwing rocks in Lake Estes- Cole was more interested in climbing on the rocks. The famous Stanley Hotel, inspiration for Stephen King’s, The Shining, is in the background.
Visit Wordless Wednesday to see some more pictures.
I will admit it- I LOVE Hamburger Helper. My mom used to make it a few times a month, when we were growing up, and somewhere along the way, it has joined the ranks with homemade macaroni & cheese, lasagna, and chicken enchiladas as a comfort food for me.
This is pretty ironic, since all the other comfort foods I make are from scratch. I suppose at times, everybody craves a processed, sodium, preservative enriched food. One time I posted on Twitter I was making Hamburger Helper for dinner, and one person told me that is THE meal her husband requests every year for his birthday. The flavor he always wanted? Beef Pasta!
The ONLY flavor of Hamburger Helper that I have ever eaten and probably ever will, is the Beef Pasta. That was the only flavor my mom ever served, so Hamburger Helper to me, means Beef Pasta (but when we were growing up, it was called Beef Noodle). With green beans. Plus, I add a little Worcheister sauce to it as it cooks. And I always use milk instead of water, to mix up the special seasoning packet. It ends up much thicker that way. On a cold winter night, it is hard to find anything that tastes as good as Beef Pasta Hamburger Helper cooked this way.
Because it is a comfort food, I don’t eat it very often. Maybe three times over the winter. I hate that it is processed, but it tastes so good. Ryan and Cole are picky eaters. I have no idea where they get that from (me). But, even they like and will eat good old Hamburger Helper. They will even eat some green beans with it. Maybe Hamburger Helper is a taste that is acquired genetically.
Because it is not the healthiest food to eat, the other day I was in the store and spotted Annie’s Homegrown Organic Cheeseburger Macaroni. The boys’ favorite food ever is Annie’s Mac & Cheese, and I don’t feel quite as guilty giving it to them, since it is all natural and doesn’t have the additives and preservatives in it. This looked great! It was Hamburger Helper, with no guilt. I bought a package and decided to make it that night.
The boys always ask what is for dinner, and I told them we were going to have Hamburger Helper with cheese- like mac & cheese. They got that look- where they know you are trying to pull something over on them, but don’t know what it is yet. I made green beans too.
I was convinced the boys would dig right in, and I would feel good they had a healthy dinner. As soon as Ryan and Cole the food critics saw me bring their plates to the table, they faces turned down. They looked at their plates and at healthy organic version of Hamburger Helper that I might add, costs almost double what the original version of Hamburger Helper does, as they turned up their noses.
My precious two-and-a-half year old looked at me with his blue eyes and asked,
“What the heck is this?”
I didn’t even know he knew the word ‘heck.’
My other precious son, had to get his two-cents in, so he just made the comment,
“Gross.”
I was the organic Hamburger Helper cheerleader. I told them to give it a try- they might like it. I even sang the old commercial song about Hamburger Helper:
“Hamburger Helper Helped her Hamburger, Make a Great Meal!“ (click on the link to hear the song.)
The boys were not amused. And it wasn’t even because of my singing. They ignored my cheerleading, and asked if they could have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I told them they had to eat some of their Hamburger Helper.
“But Mommy, this isn’t Hamburger Helper.” Ryan told me.
“Not Hamburger Helper- this is YUCKY!” Cole added.
They had a point- it didn’t look like our beloved Beef Pasta Hamburger Helper.
“This isn’t even mac & cheese.” Ryan told me upon further inspection, poking the hamburger around on his plate.
“This is YUCKY!” Cole added, holding up a piece of hamburger.
I was not defeated yet. I sat down and told the boys this was a very good dinner and I was going to eat my plate of Hamburger Helper. I took my first bite, and it wasn’t bad- but it wasn’t Hamburger Helper. Ryan and Cole watched me eat a few more bites, and then Ryan tried a bite. He looked like he was eating a cross between some dirt and some mud. After he took a huge drink of milk he told Cole, “It’s not too bad Cole.” Cole’s response was, “YUCKY!”
I had Cole eat a few bites, which was not fun, and the boys ate their green beans. Then they were done. As I was clearing the plates away, I overheard Ryan tell Cole “to watch mom at the store, and make sure she never buys that yucky food again.” I think the food critics have evolved now into food spies- they are going to cut me off at the pass.
Since we don’t eat regular Hamburger Helper very often, I will just stick to the original processed version. The boys like it, I like it, and they won’t have to hear me sing a commercial jingle from the 80’s. Some things shouldn’t be changed, and Hamburger Helper is one of them.
Now it is your turn- do you like Hamburger Helper? Do your kids like it? Which flavor is your favorite? Let me know I am not the only Hamburger Helper lover out there. 🙂