first signs of spring vs. last signs of winter

i'm trying to convince myself that spring is on its way...so i walked around the yard today checking out our plants & beds. here are a few snapshots that affirm: yes! spring is coming.

chives!

azalea!

lilac

peeping iris

isn't that last picture interesting? i mean, not the shot/angle/lighting/etc but the fact of the irises poking through the leaves? cool, in my book. or does the iris grow through the holes in the leaves? hhmm...

as you can see we don't de-leaf our garden beds until spring, to give the flowers & soil more warmth & protection & a jump start on compost...so now we have lots of back breaking work ahead of us the next few weeks. i cleared the smallest of our beds last week (the day amelia sat on our daisy) & wow, i am not what i used to be. i know a severe surgery & then recovery & then recovery from recovery is hard on a person, but...i was so tired after just an hour of leaning over, pulling & cutting...& fending off the wild childrens who roam our street daily (or maybe just our driveway?).

so these pictures give me some hope of spring & warm breezes & fresh tomatoes.

***

then there was this afternoon. adeline was beyond grumpy since i picked her up from school. i hadn't even turned out of the alley after picking her up & she was fake-crying/whining about something or other...finally, it hit me to take her temperature. 101.1. great! then her rash started to redden, so i called wes to confer whether the pediatrician should be called & he agreed: enough of this, already!

so then the ped's secretary said the only appointment left was in 20 minutes...could i make it?! so i grabbed amelia out of her crib (she was still asleep, poor kid!), snapped them both in their car seats, grabbed a snack for them & left. i even remembered to snatch the diaper bag--but not my purse. *sigh* (i called wes nearly 5 times within 1 minute to ask him to call our credit card number into the secretary...finally he answered. *sigh again*). 

apparently this rash she has is a strep throat or strep rash. her back & front are like sandpaper & we had been caring for it for over a few weeks, thinking it had something to do with these unexplained fevers or maybe a weird variation of eczema. anyway, the rash is from strep throat...whether she has it now or not, we'll know tomorrow. (yes, that means another $100 throat culture bill that we'll receive in 3 1/2 weeks...all which have come back with the same result as the in-office throat culture result: negative). if addy still has this fever by thursday night or friday morning, she's to have blood work done to see what's run amok in her body. if it goes away & the 2nd culture is negative, we're to assume she is simply fighting off another virus. of course, they didn't offer any antibiotics yet...i see their point of kids being constantly given antibiotics & building an intolerance, etc but come on! how many times must she gets sick with the same damn symptoms before antibiotics are given to her?

the pediatrician mentioned that they expect a kid going to a new school to get sick 10 - 12 times within one year, most of that being between october & april. adeline has been sick with a fever &/or rash/vomiting/diarrhea *every week* since early january. i really like this specific pediatrician in the practice, but today...today, i gave her the hairy-mom-eyeball. especially when she said that adeline might have had strep weeks ago & with it not being treated could now be another infection in her body (the other culture will help us determine that, as would a blood test). i mentioned that we took her in a few weeks ago for the same symptoms, similar high fever, similar rash, a culture was done, & we were told it was just a passing virus. (freakin'-a, we just got the bill for that one!). i also mentioned again that if this is anything like the past 2 months of the *same illness* repeating every week (she has been seen monthly by the ped's) she won't have a fever tomorrow & the culture will come back negative... &  nothing will be done except 'use ibuprofen!'

lol, this warning of a kid getting sick 10-12 times is this:

a load of shit. 

(this is doggy poo i picked up from the yard today. pretty gross, eh? a dog craps *that much* in just a few months?!)

i know kids are bound to be sick. but! the symptoms are redundant, it's the same thing over & over & over, repeat every 8-9 days. of course, there have been other illnesses, like croup & such. but this specific one with the rash & fever & then it just vanishes, then repeats. would you be concerned?

i don't think she has some major illness or whatever. it could just be that really, she keeps getting new viruses...maybe it has something to do with a food allergy (fever though?). then i think how long it took for me to get the correct diagnoses (acoustic neuroma tumor, celiac, adrenal fatigue...nevermind that ibs & fibromyalgia crap!). anyway, i just keep thinking of what to do next...

***

so that's where we are, in between the crap of winter & the buds of spring. the angst, the angst. & now we must be shut-ins again. at least we have the ability to go outside & run ourselves ragged this week.