Homework

After starting this last night rather late in the evening, I dreamt about it! I woke up this morning with the feeling that I hadn't done my homework and it was due in 10 minutes. That is not a great feeling. I am sure it didn't help that my husband is out of town so I stayed up way to late watching TV. I find it hard to fall asleep when he is not here. I thought for sure if I laid in the bed with the TV on, I would just drift off and wake up to have to turn the TV off. No such luck. And so, my tired brain worked all night on what I would post next. I never would have guessed that I would choose to write an essay for pleasure. I enjoyed my Sophomore and Senior Year of English in high school, but I think that is only because I liked the teacher. She was very project oriented which made getting a passing grade much easier. If my writing was not good enough, the project that went with it seemed to make up the difference. Yet as I write, all those grammar, sentence structure, and punctuations rules float through my head and make me self conscious that she will read this, grade it, and send it back with a bad grade. This is the Internet, who is watching for that? And yea for spell check!

So I have decided that it is not too late to talk about the Christmas break and will fill you in on all that went on during the two weeks the kids were out of school. Actually, not much happened. At least we thought not much happened until it was time to go back to school.

We had a very nice start to the break when Dad's parents came for the weekend before Christmas. With all the kids scattered about, they tried to spend some of the holiday with each of us. While they were here we got the good news that Dad's brother was promoted and will be moving to Montana. I am excited to go visit them and drive through West Yellowstone, where I consider myself to have grown up there. (Even though I was 8 when we moved there and 13 when we moved away.) Great news for them. This will be a great opportunity, and a huge change from the San Jose Bay Area.

B & L are always great help when they are here. They brought the Rainbow (super - duper vacuum) and cleaned the upstairs. Even more of the bathroom was finished with parents there as motivators. (Before and after pics will come soon)

Then we pretty much had a low key rest of the week. Christmas day came and we all got the things on our lists. We had lots of fun with the new keyboard, video games, light saber, Mr. Potato Head and Optomash Prime.

We tried to get a trip in to Southern California, but The Higher Ups went out of town which left Dad holding the fort. I soon stopped pouting and hung out with the kids. Then Saturday morning, 12/29, we were cleaning up from Christmas and Ohtee stubbed his big toe. He could have easily needed stitches, but it was cut in a way we could put a band-aid on it and leave it to heal. (He has many scars for only 5 years of life.) And so the day went on, and the house actually was clean by the end. Then around 7:45 pm that night, NeeNee got her finger caught in the sofa recliner latch. The pinch startled her, so she pulled her finger and it ripped. She had a nice "mouth" on her right middle finger. On the soft fleshy side of her finger. This was not a cut we could bandage and let heal. So, NeeNee and I went to the ER at 8pm on a Saturday evening - New Years weekend. I was not looking forward to the hours we would most likely have to wait. As quickly as we were getting shoes and coats on, Ahla, my big helper, was getting books, crayons, paper, and snacks together for us to take with us for our anticipated long wait. Well, we lucked out, our insurance chosen ER had a FAST TRACK where we were able to go because we "just needed stitches". YEA!!!!! We were only there 2 hours. That may seem long, but we were ready to be there into the night. NeeNee said the worst part of the whole thing was not the cut itself, but the needle and poking to numb the finger before the DR could stitch it. She had a nice purple ring around her finger for a few days after. We went home, she went to bed and all seemed right with the world again. Well, to be on the safe side of infection, the ER DR gave her a prescription antibiotic since hands are really dirty. We gave her the meds as directed without any incident. Then two days after she had finished her treatment, she got a rash of little red bumps all over her upper torso. I was worried that she was allergic to the Tide I had started using for the laundry. But it was not anywhere else on her body. The next morning, she was covered where her cloths were and the rash was now crawling up her neck and face. At least we were already on our way back to the DR to get the stitches removed. When the DR looked at her, she said "this looks like a drug reaction". They gave her Benadryl and sent us on our way. That night the rash was getting worse. This could not be from the drugs they gave her now three days gone. We went to our Family DR the next morning. They didn't think it was from the drugs, but wanted to know what had caused it. All agreed it was an allergic reaction to something. So NeeNee will be going to and Allergist to find out what the deal is. She was sad to have this all happen at the end of the break. She was ready to get back to school to see her friends, but the allergy meds they gave her made her drowsy. The Family DR gave her a stronger prescription allergy med that cleared everything up in a day and a half. We were glad to see the spots go away.

Now everyone is healthy, except for the winter coughs, and we will be going to Disneyland this weekend. I am looking forward to warmer days and maybe a little more sun.