Ice Pack Trick, Foot Progress, Diaper Rash

Sorry - I'm just totally uninspired right now. **** We have a cafeteria at work, but I've not purchased anything from it in almost 2 weeks. I'm sick of it. It never changes. When it's good, it's OK and when it's bad, it's terrible. We have lost two good cooks in the last three weeks and are now stuck with someone who, while he's got good intentions, cannot cook to save his life. I can't even bring myself to sample the food he cooks. Therefore, I'm not patronizing the cafeteria at work, I am bringing my lunch. I also have, yet again, put myself on a restricted intake of food. (I refuse to call it a diet. That's a four-letter word, you know...) I'm trying VERY hard to lose at least 1 full size in 6 months. I'm taking it slowly, so 1 size in 6 months shouldn't be too terribly hard. Except it is. So by April '09, I should be a very comfortable size 12. That's my goal. I will absolutely be horrified with myself if I fail at this one simple task. I fail at so much these days, it seems. Anyway - since I am now bringing my lunch to work on a very regular basis, I have devised an ingenious way to cool my lunch bag without using a standard ice-pack. I am absolutely positive that I am not the first one to come up with this, however, but I did think of it myself - no one put the idea in my head. (This pleases me for some reason.) I simply freeze a 16- or 20-oz bottle of water and put it in my lunch bag along with all my other allowable foods. It's melted enough by the time I need/want to drink it that I've got some nice, cold, ice water to sip on for the rest of the day. I think it's brilliant. Silly...right? **** My foot is healing nicely. Still uncomfortable and still ugly-looking, but healing well. I'm in the waiting-for-the-dead-skin-on-the-callous-to-fall-off stage of healing. It's still uncomfortable, but I can - almost - walk on it without pain. Standing, putting pressure on it, is OK. Walking, actually moving that joint under my big toe, is slightly more difficult and hurts when the wounded area stretches. I ditched the walking boot and ace bandage combo yesterday and wore my sneakers instead. It was the first day I had worn a real shoe on my right foot since before The Foot Incident at the beach. I put a large bandage over the wound, a sock over my foot and a shoe over the whole thing. It was probably too soon. My foot ached like the dickens by the time I got home. I wrapped it up again in the ace bandage, but by the time I was settling in with Hubby to watch Iron Man, my foot was restless and uncomfortable again. I took the bandage off and didn't put anything back on it until after my shower this morning. I'm in a regular bandage and a sneaker again. I'm hoping that with use, my foot - that joint - will loosen up and not be as painful when I walk. **** Kiddo and Little Bit are doing well. Little Bit has a terrible diaper rash - one that actually causes her pain. I researched ointments online yesterday and found that Triple Paste seems to be the number one treatment for this kind of rash. After that, Boudreaux's Butt Paste. (Funny, eh?) They're both good. We use BBP, usually, but this rash of hers needs something...um...more. Poor thing. I bathed them last night and actually managed to get through an entire bath without getting completely soaked or having to raise my voice once. Both kids got scrubbed until they were pink and shiny. Then, they (with my help, of course) got out of the tub, dried, teeth brushed, hair dried (hair dryers are funny, apparently) and then they played...naked...for about 15 minutes. I let them play this way mainly for Little Bit's benefit. All the research I did yesterday on diaper rash said that getting them good and clean and then letting them run around naked for a while will help the rash heal. Hubby said this morning that her backside seems redder, but the redness is smaller. Does that make sense? It's only been 1 day...so hopefully she'll start feeling better soon. **** Well, for being uninspired today - I seem to have written quite a lot, huh? I guess that's what happens to me when I don't write for a couple of days. All this "stuff" gets backed up in my brain and then comes out in a mad rush of typing. My fingers aren't tired yet, but my brain is. I'm gonna go, now. Have a great day! TTFN JMS