This and That....

Thanks to everyone who asked about The Boy. He is so much better. We discovered on Monday that he had strep throat. Yikes! Of course, we discovered this after he surprisingly told the doctor "oh yeah, my throat feels weird." Oh really?? This might have been a good piece of information to share with mom while she was trying to figure out the cause of the high fever. Anyway, as soon as we got a couple of doses of antibiotic in him, he was fine. Although he looks about 10 pounds lighter....

Little One is in rehearsals for 'Grease' at the local theater. She does not allow me to watch rehearsals, so last night, I disguised myself and hid in order to watch. Little One surprises me on a daily basis (in good and bad ways!)...but once again, I was in awe of how good she was! Excuse me for being a mom for just a sec....

The Husband would like for me to add a little addendum to yesterday's blog. He claims the wet suits were meant to be used when we vacationed at Lake George. Unfortunately, we never got there, so this did not pan out....

Two more days of school...this makes me very happy. I am so ready to not have any homework for a few weeks....

That's it for today...off to do errands......until next week.....

On Changing My Mind... Maybe

Just a couple of things....



1) I may have to amend yesterday's posting on Tiger Woods after the news this morning. I'm not rushing to judgement...but all of this 'texting' stuff and women coming out of the woodwork tend to discourage me from wanting to defend him. Yesterday I felt protective...today I'm leaning towards "you made your bed, now lie in it"......But hey, too soon to have an opinion.



2) I personally did not like the President's speech on Afghanistan last night. I don't think you can defend sending 30,000 troops over there by saying that it is important for the good of the world...and then in the next sentence say that you'll bring them home in 18 months regardless of the outcome. It felt like a defensive speech crafted to appease his detractors on the left and right. To the Michael Moores of the world who want to just get out...he explained that there was real danger there that needs to be addressed. To those who think we should be sending more troops, he explained that it was a very expensive war and we could not be there on an open-ended basis. It was definitely not a "rally the troops" speech...but more of a 'well, if I have to"...not exactly what I would think our military would want to hear. I don't like that he is always so apologetic....BE THE PRESIDENT. Take a stand, whatever that is, and then state it and move on. Don't waste our time trying to justify everything. Didn't he ever hear that you can't please all the people all the time??

(One defense of him...I appreciated hearing that his delay of making his mind up on this matter did not put the troops at any risk. If you listened to the conservative press...you would have thought that he was twiddling his thumbs while the troops were waiting. Evidently, the needed troops were not requested until 2010. Shame on the press for making it seem like he was just ignoring his military advisors...)



3)On the home front, Little One is in rehearsals for two different plays: 'Grease' at the local playhouse, which requires her to dance and sing, and the Christmas play at school which requires her to be an elf and act out the lines she has written. I am not allowed to see her rehearse either one...so both should be interesting. Picking out the costume for the elf took about a week. I never knew that there were so many versions of the Christmas elf. Unfortunately, there are several"'sexy" versions on line which I had to talk her out of. She did not understand why a 10 year old would probably not want to wear stockings and heels in the 4th grade play....

4) The Boy's schedule is full. He continues to practice basketball for his team...but he also has weight training, endurance training and batting lessons. He and I look at each other every morning and say 'What sport today?"......On another note....he is in the midst of writing his first research paper. An outline had to be constructed. Can somebody explain to me why the same boy who can organize his baseball cards by color, player, size, batting average, etc,. cannot seem to understand the pertinence of an outline?

5) Thanks to those who have asked about my nose. It still hurts, but it no longer looks crooked...and this is the first morning since the incident that I have not had to put on several layers of make up to keep from being questioned by the police...

That's it for this rainy day. I'm thinking of pulling our the Christmas decorations. Little One has already reminded me to "do it better this year".....until tomorrow......

Back To The Routine....

It's always hard to get back into the swing of things after a holiday weekend. Little One provided a negative running commentary this morning on her feelings about the day. "I don't want to get up. I don't want to go to school. I don't want to eat breakfast. I don't want to brush my teeth."....Well, you get the picture.

The Husband and I headed to the school parking lot late last night to try and start the car that I had to leave in the parking lot last week. Dad's car may have provided me with some good memories in the past...but this last memory made me consider just leaving it there. However, after tightening several wires, it started right up....Many thanks to the 'friends' who said they were actually in line that day and 'would have stopped if they had seen me.' ....Uh, ok, yeah, thanks....However, heartfelt thanks to Mr. J, who kindly picked me up, waited in line for the kids, and made polite conversation, all the while pretending that I had not interrupted his day....
SO happy to be driving my own car this morning. The Husband was kind enough to get those tires on so quickly for me. And for those of you who are thinking that it was some sort of payback for the nose incident...you are most likely correct.

Speaking of the nose, it is much better this morning...but there is agreement among the family that it looks a little crooked. Now The Husband thinks this is because it is still bruised and this somehow "causes shading that makes it look crooked." ...Uh, ok. The Boy just said "You better go to the doctor." I say it is a good thing I am not vain (Husband is belly-laughing at this) because otherwise, the crookedness would affect my mood. I do admit to being happy that I have no appointments today. I also admit to hiding during school drop off this morning....

I went shopping on Black Friday (what does that mean?) with Big Sis and Little One. We actually only made it to one store. Little One found a lovely turquoise shirt with attached necklace which she wore the whole weekend. Big Sis scored a chic animal-print dress which I would wager she is wearing to work today. I came away with a lavatory sign that says "toilette" in french. What I really wanted was a pair of red suede 5 inch platform heels. Little One and Big Sis tried to talk me into getting them, but as I have said before, 5 inches puts me at 6'3...and where do I go these days where I need to be 6'3? I wasn't able to talk myself into them, even at the fabulous sale price...but they are still on my mind today. If I could just come up with a place to wear them...

Lastly, we had a wonderful dinner with BFF friends on Saturday night. So nice after eating leftovers for a few days to go out for a delicious meal. I had to plot out my meal, since the first thing I saw was that the chocolate creme brulee was the "special" dessert for the evening. Everyone said they were going to take a bite...but as it turned out, it was just me and Little one who polished it off....I left feeling like I couldn't move. It was the best dessert I've had in ages...but it also made me feel like I better step up my workouts a bit this week....

So that's it for today. Little One is making her stage debut as an elf in the Christmas play...so I am off in search of a costume...Until tomorrow.....

"Weekends are A Bit Like Rainbows; They Look Good From a Distance, But Disappear When You Get Up Close."

It's Friday. Today was meant to be 'Grandparents and Friends Day' at the kid's school. Kind of a sad day for me, reminding me that mom and dad are no longer around. Grandpa (The Husband's dad) has not been well lately...and he still teaches school ( this devout catholic teaches at the jewish school...a story for a whole different blog), so he could not make the trip from New Jersey. For the last few years, Little One's godfather has been kind enough to 'stand in' on this day as family and friend. He comes and meets the teachers and reads the kids' papers and jokes around with them. It is really kind of him to do this, as I usually have to ask at the last minute, since I only find the crumpled-up paper with the date of the day in somebody's bookbag a couple of days beforehand...

Anyway, we had to cancel today because Little One is not feeling well. On Wednesday, she had an orthodontic appliance called the 'herbst' put in. Now Big Sister has asked me not to refer to this by name, as she feels like it sounds like an adult transmitted disease. "Mom, just say she got braces." Her feeling was validated by another friend of mine yesterday who, after hearing The Boy talk about Little One's 'herbst', told me I should not allow him to talk about that. The Boy has worn this appliance for a few months now, and I remembered that he had experienced a lot of discomfort at the beginning. But Little One is unfortunately experiencing perpetual pain...so she's home this morning, buried in the distraction of Disney Channel.

The Husband was suppose to attend this morning too, so upon hearing the devastating news that we would not be going, he buried himself under the covers and pretended it was already the weekend.

A few more recaps from the week.....Big Sis chastised me for the 'Vegetarian Blog". Seems it was only the SIL who caved and ate Burger King...and he is insisting that it was only a momentary lapse. They are back on track...still living the 'hippie, outdoorsman, vegetarian' lifestyle. Big Sister has become quite the spokesperson, sending out at least 5 e-mail blasts a day warning against eating meat. The Big Sis can delve into a lifestyle with the best of them.....We'll track her progress in the weeks to come.

This weekend, as shocking as it may seem, The Boy has several baseball games. The good news for me is that a friend recommended some good books to read. The bad news is that I will be accused of being anti-social at the games. There is evidently a fine line between keeping busy at the games and coming across as 'downright rude and anti-social'. This makes me miss The Boy's old team, where I knew all of the parents, and they had no problem with my anti-social behavior. It was well known that I only had a limited amount of conversation to offer...and nobody cared. But this weekend, I will only bring out the book after I have said 'Hello, how's it going?' to everyone....

So until next week, when hopefully the Little One will be feeling better, The Boy will win some games, and the Big Sis will still be eating her veggies....