Moldy Blog

We've moved the old laptop up to the loft.  It now sits in a make-shift "office" (not even close to an office) for my school.

The laptop used to sit on the kitchen table, which is in the dining room, so I guess I should say it used to sit on the dining room table.  But we have no table in our kitchen....so does that make it a kitchen/dining table?  Or a dining/kitchen table?  Never mind.  The laptop used to sit on the kitchen dining table.  Now, it's in the "office."

You wouldn't believe how much more time I have to spend on everything else when I don't have the laptop within ear shot of it calling my name.  Cause it does.  It calls to me every three minutes, wanting me to check my email, check my google reader, check my facebook....well, not so much facebook really.  That has been kind of boring me lately.  But definitely the email and google reader.

School has been a handful.  The professors threw us straight in with no mercy.  The homework was knee deep (no joke!) on the first day.  I was up until two in the morning on Wednesday.  Ugh.  Thankfully, it's the four day weekend (for me, no school on Fridays or Mondays) and I can slow down and breathe.  I made myself clean the house before I would "allow" myself blogging time.  And I got it almost done, so I ran up here to my beloved blogger while Kinley is napping.

I had to take her to the pediatrician today.  She's been doing the screaming, ear tugging, head slapping, finger sticking in her ear thing.  So we assumed it was her first ear infection.  Ummmm, nope.  Ears are clear.  She does have throat irritation and stuffed up sinuses though, so she recommended a very small dose of Benedryl to help that out.  She mentioned a possibility of a mold allergy.  I quickly dismissed that.  We don't have mold in our house.  Right?  Who has mold in their house?

Ummm, we do.

It never really occurred to me before, about how dangerous mold can be, until I put two and two together.  Which sometimes takes me a while. 

We've seen the ick window sills in our living room several times and we're always like, "ewwww, gross" but that's about as far as it ever got.  I mean, it's a rental.  Not our problem. 

It quickly became my problem when I heard that my baby could be suffering from a mold allergy.  And over half of her symptoms that we've been dealing with for the past few weeks, are on the list for symptoms of mold exposure.  Nice, huh?

So I called the health department and scheduled  mold inspection.  They are coming Monday.

This is sort of a blessing in disguise. 

We have been contemplating looking for a cheaper place anyway, and what better reason than this place being a sick hole for our baby.  (And, it could explain why Richie and I always have headaches.)  I'm not saying that the level of mold (is that right?) in here is dangerous...but it looks like it very well could be.  I took some pictures of the icky-ness for you.

I was going to add more, but blogger won't let me.  Hmmm.
I fixed it.

Yes, that is ice on the INSIDE.  Is that normal?

Do I have any mold-experienced readers out there?  How much mold is considered a dangerous level?  The only visible mold (that I have noticed in this quantity) is around our two living room windows.  They hold major amounts of condensation (see the ice on the INSIDE?) so maybe it's normal to have mold like this?  Maybe I'm over-reacting?  What are your thoughts?

Moving is totally NOT something we want to do (side note: we have way too much stuff....moving is the least desirable option) but if this place is full of mold and is unsafe for our daughter (oh yeah, and us) then it's the sign that we've been praying for.

For a few weeks now, we've been praying about our situation and trying to decide if looking for a cheaper place is the right move for us.  And I guess there is a part of me that believes that this is the sign that it is the right move.

I guess we'll know for certain on Monday when we have the inspection done.