It's hard to take a good picture when the target is running. The boy wakes up early, meaning he prefers to take an early morning ride to get the rest of us out of bed.
The past couple of weeks have felt a little bit like a bad hangover...you know that you have experienced something, but you're having a hard time remembering whether you'd like to try it again. Here are just a few of the things I've 'drunk'--my cup runneth o'er.
* Overheard: Lachlan talking to her dad (mostly a mumble). Jeff responds, "Oh, I'm not telling her that--you tell her that."
Lachlan: "Mom, you no go to store with us. You stay home. You too old."
* Jack gets winter asthma. We love doing our nebulizer treatments every four hours for 10 days...then he gets pink eye, gives it to Lachlan, who gets an ear infection and puss drains out of her ear (thank goodness for that gigantic hole that never healed).
* I get pink eye and horrible cold. I wake up early so that I can drive to a class to teach 60 student-teachers. I can't see out of my eyes because they are sealed shut and swollen. I have to hold a hot rag on them so that I can "unstick" them. Sorry, Weber State people...you've been exposed. Nothing personal...
* I contract painful sinus infection, probably from the mucus I continually wiped out of Lachlan's ears. Whole family goes on antibiotics--I find myself a little weepy when considering how grateful I am for modern medicine.
* I go on the road for extensive teaching circuit. Have best night of sleep in long time while staying at a motel...whole bed to myself!
* Have to give both cats a bath. Bruce tried to shove his lard butt underneath the fence--he made it but only because the mud acted as a lubricant. I find the little weasel sleeping on the one piece of furniture that cannot be easily washed. Ernie just smells bad.
* I haven't been to the gym for two weeks. Either too sick, or too tired. I did, however, discover this little gem of a restaurant in Bear Lake. I highly recommend the mushroom burger. I could have eaten two of them if I thought it would have benefited society.
* Checked out several books from the library. Two thumbs up for "How Does a Dinosaur Eat His Food" and "There's An Alligator Under My Bed." I read them so many times that I started to make up alternate characters. I also finished the Newbery Honor, "Whittington," by Alan Armstrong--I cried it was so good. ALL animal lovers should read that book. It's a short read (1-2 hours). The story is entertaining, heartwarming, sort of true...all good stuff.
* Laughed till I cried watching "30 Rock"--if you missed the Valentine's episode, well, you really missed out. Jeff and I ate cheese stew for our Valentine's dinner--seriously, we did.
* Started feeding a stray cat on my front porch. Named him "Black Fritz"...looks just like Fritz (only black) yeah, I'm a weirdo. Jack told me tonight that Black Fritz was knocking on the door and wanted to come in. I told him that he was too scared of people, to which Jack responded, "good, I don't want him to get my movies."
* Paid a gagillion dollars for an MRI--which led to the discovery that I have a herniated disk in my L2 and a bulging disk in L3. I went to my first session of physical therapy which lasted two hours. Holy crap! I can either be crippled or broke. Do you know how much an MRI costs? Well, I had no idea. Oh, and it is very noisy. AND if you hurt your lower back you can expect that at least 10 strangers will come into a room while your pants are half down and rub your butt with icy hot. (Did I mention that my butt is not little and/or cute??) Good thing I removed all of my dignity while birthing the Jack.
* Sent Lachlan to her first Valentine's party without any Valentines to give away. I completely forgot--she just walked around and took cards and candy from the other children. I am a loser.
* We attended the Asian cultural celebration. I'll post video later. On our way out they asked if we would like to take 4 goldfish home (the centerpieces). Oh, yes. Lachlan was so excited. She kept telling me all the way home, "mom, you not pop their heads off, okay." Okay, I'll try not to rip the head off of a fish on the way home...she later names the fish the following: back, whitey, fishy and other fishy. Back? Like a chicken back, only just back? And well, between whitey and Black Fritz it is starting to feel like we have racial issues (auuggh). Two days later, we are two down and two to go--we really didn't think that she had identified or singled out any of the named fish, but sure enough her first question was, "Where's Back?" Jeff (without any sympathy) states, "He died. I threw him in the toilet. Do you want to flush him?" Oh, yes. So we all head in there to give Back his last rights. On our way back to the breakfast table I tried to soften the blow:
Me: "It's okay, Back will be happy in heaven with Jesus and Fritz"
Lachlan: "Yeah, it okay, he come back on Monday."
Me: "Yeah, Monday."
Sidenote: Other Fishy made it the longest, but even he passed away this morning.
* The power went out three days ago. All of the clocks are an hour and a half behind (approximately). I haven't changed them to the correct time because it has just been easier to adjust the schedule accordingly.
