January 12, 2008
We are going home today! Zachie’s O2 levels are good enough to go “unwired.” I laughed, a nurse cornered the Dr as he left our room and asked, “How come I have a mask and gloves on, and you aren’t wearing any protective gear?” I didn’t catch his answer. Dr was really impressed that I could listen to the radio on my computer. He isn’t really old, he might be as many as 10 years older than me, but I guess he isn’t really techno-savvy. I’m gonna go pack now.
January 11, 2008
Friday Evening We are still here. Maybe tomorrow. Dr said that when we go home, we will probably have oxygen and breathing treatments too. I can only imagine what Tommy will think of the O2 lines. Zach has started to flirt and visit with people, a good sign. Husband came up for a while, and he brought the baby vibrator chair. Unfortunately Zach is not interested in vibrating. I managed to pull the antibiotic line out of the port again, right at bedtime. He was really fussy all evening, and just wanted to be held, that is why I was transferring him from the bassinette to my bed. I feel sorry for our neighbors, although we are kind of at the end of a hallway.
Not happy tonight.
Saturday The cleaning guy is cute, probably 15 years younger than I am…but nice to look at and friendly too. Everyone here does things differently, one aid will put a full sized sheet on Zach’s bassinette, folding it under the mattress, the next will slip the mattress into a pillowcase (what I would have done). The respiratory therapist, a man, keeps Zach in his bassinette to do his treatments, he doesn’t even touch him. The nurses hold him and rock him when they do the treatments. People come into our room in all states of dress, some in hazmat suits, some in just masks some just wander in. I think there is a man in his 40s or 50s here, then the rest of the patients are all 80 years and up. I suspect my foray into pop culture is about to end. I think I have learned that 70 channels of TV doesn’t get me excited enough to want a dish. I didn’t even watch my usual shows this week. I used to watch Grey’s Anatomy religiously, but Zach was born on a Thursday, and I haven’t seen it since the first week in November. I don’t even miss it much. You can bet I won’t miss Lost on January 31. What I am missing right now is my Saturday morning NPR fix, I listen to Car Talk and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. Wait, I can stream radio! It looks like I am back into the early 20th century again, of course using (for me) 21st century technology. I am gonna miss this internet hookup big time. 
More when I know more, still haven’t seen the Dr today.
Mama! My bouncy!
January 11, 2008
Friday Woke up around 6 after staying up until midnight. Zachie has been getting a little better each day. I don’t think you get over this quickly. Dr said he would make a call on when we could go home based on this afternoon’s blood tests. After the morning breathing treatment, the nurses decided his port was clogged, and wanted to move it again. I decided that was my best opportunity to dash home for more clothes etc. When I got home, Mom was in the middle of making cabbage burgers, so I had to stay for lunch. Tommy was so happy to see me, and had so much to babble about, then he fell asleep on Papa’s lap before lunch, while I was in the shower, so I didn’t spend much time with him. I did play barbies with the ladies for a while. Man that is boring. Lydia called me on it, demanding to know why my dolls weren’t talking. I pointed out that they were in the beauty shop, and they couldn’t talk over the hair dryer. I was actually sitting and enjoying watching my kids play. I would much rather play cars or blocks or little people or store than barbies, although back in the day I played my fair share of barbies.
When I got back to the hospital, Zach was due for another breathing treatment, then my minister stopped by for a chat. So far nobody has drawn blood, but on Tues, the Dr said that we would have at least 72 hours of antibiotics for the infection. By my calculation, that is up, and the nurse said the Dr hadn’t stopped anything yet.
January 10, 2008
Tuesday I slept in. Zach was not feeling well, I had 2 non-consecutive hours of sleep Sat night, and Sun was only a little better. I dropped the ladies at pre-school about five minutes late then took Tommy and Zach to Zach’s well-baby appointment at 9:15. By 9:45 we were checking into the hospital with two X-rays and a nose swab under our belts.
Zachie has RSV, pneumonia and also a secondary infection. I kept Tommy with me until 3:30 in the hospital room. Can you imagine being in a hospital room for five-and-a-half hours with a sick 2 month-old and a healthy 18 month-old? We played drive-the-tractor, lose-the-puzzle-pieces and shred-the-toilet paper. The emergency room let us take their “Easy Button” and we about wore it out. The kitchen gave us two noon meals, including Jello for Tommy. “Gave” is probably the wrong word to use here. I dashed home find that Husband had got upwards of 60 pounds of free baby carrots from work. At least I don’t have to wonder what to do with them. I managed to line up our once-a-week nanny, pack, orchestrate my hospital entertainment and child care for everyone else over the course of half an hour. I got back to the hospital in time for the doctor to tell me we wouldn’t be leaving until noon on Friday, or later.
I brought Zach’s baby quilt, which I am about done with now, The Secret Garden to read, (I am out of unread books at home) and my cell phone manual. I spent the first night learning how to text message better. I also brought the laptop, thinking I could write, or organize my files. The Dr told me two months ago they didn’t have wireless.
This was as far as he opened his eyes Tuesday.
We got a single room, and a bassinette like when Zach was born. This is a small hospital, there are maybe 25 or so rooms. I recognize most of the nursing staff from my stay two months ago. They remember us too. We have a banner claiming “ISOLATION” outside the door. This means most hospital personnel who come in have a mask and hazmat gown. Zach is on an IV and also oxygen. He has bandages on both “elbow pits” from blood draws and owies on the back of both hands where they tried to put a port in. They also tried twice on his head before they got it in. Poor little guy. Someone comes in every four hours to do breathing treatments on him with some kind of vapor, Chemistry 101 escapes me.
Wednesday, after the best night’s sleep I have had since I don’t even remember when, I was awakened at 5:00. A hospital is no place to sleep, we had people come in five times that night! Zach was put on glucose, since he wasn’t nursing well. As the day progressed, that changed, and he made up for several days’ worth of feedings by eating pretty much full time from lunch to bed time. Zachie sounds like he is breathing backwards through a harmonica. Mom and my Stepdad came to watch the other kiddos, because Husband has a business meeting out of town Thursday. The whole tribe came to visit, for half an hour that evening. I had bought a bag of Cheetos, so my bedding has small hand shaped orange spots all over it. Kinda makes the place seem homey.
I learned this evening how to control the TV volume. We had it on extremely low. I accidentally noticed the dial on the bed thing, and realized I could adjust it. Cool! Since we have no cable, I miss out on some of the cultural things going on in society. Things I like to have a passing knowledge about, like “Sex in the City.” I got to see that for the first and probably last time. I also got to watch “Monk,” which I liked. I won’t watch anything with a crawler. I panic because I can’t not watch the words. I am a compulsive reader. I have the same problem with subtitles, even if they are another language. It took me until Thursday at 8:00 p.m. to figger out I had wireless. Oh the time I could have wasted. Seems like I need to be a little more observant of my surroundings.
Thursday, I slept in until 7:00. Oh my gosh it was wonderful. Right before I went to bed, around midnight Tues night, I moved Zach to my bed, because he was not happy in the bassinette, and managed to pull out the glucose line and cause him to bleed all over my bed. That was awful. The nurses keep saying that they want to use the same port site as long as possible. I guess I didn’t do any harm to that, but I sure felt bad for him, and he felt bad too. I slept great after that though. I must be running on fumes to be able to sleep through someone taking my kid out of my bed to give him breathing treatments. Personally, I hate to sleep where other people can see me. I stayed awake the whole time on the plane to and from Hawaii. I seem to be over that problem.
We have special garbage containers in our room, for all the stuff they put on. I made a comment to the cleaning guy about how much waste is leaving our room. He weighed it and we are using about five pounds of gowns/gloves/diapers/medical packaging a day. The respiratory therapist made a joke about the food here, and while it is not what one would expect from a high class restaurant, I didn’t have to cook it, so I won’t complain. It is definitely down home style cooking, and there is nothing wrong with it. I have had both beets and spinach for vegetables, nothing fresh though.
Dad and Nanny came to visit for an hour today. They are on their way through for some kind of meeting somewhere. They kindly brought me the Christmas gift I had given them, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. I was not done reading it when I had to wrap it. I should have plenty of time now, since the quilt is almost done, and The Secret Garden is pretty short. I sent the quilt home with Mom, so she can get the binding ready for me to attach. I have a hard time not doing anything, even watching TV for very long.
Later, Mom brought the ladies for a brief visit. We all used the stethoscope on Zach, and when the Cheetos ran out they left. Shortly after that, the port gave out and the nurses had to remove all the tape from Zach’s hair. I left when they put in the new port. After supper we had another guest. The Dr said he his thinking we might go home tomorrow afternoon, maybe. I tried to upload video of Zachie breathing, but I couldn’t get it to work. I will try again before I leave this wireless haven and return to my prehistoric dialup.
Notice the Cheetos, Mom can actually be bribed with them.
Looking a little better.
This begs the question, what happened? How could my kid get so sick without me knowing it? I knew he was sick when we went to the Dr. The appointment was the reason I didn’t take him in Monday. Sunday, a friend told us his daughter had RSV, but we didn’t touch him, or anything he touched, and she wasn’t around. I understand that the child needs to be present for the disease to move from one to another. God, I hope so, I visited my cousin’s baby in the hospital! Zach stayed home. I guess the only thing weird, other than what I thought was a cold, was the fact that Zach had foamy drool. Sorry about the technical jargon, but that is it. When it dried, it looked a little like egg whites. He was breathing a little rough, but all of my kids were snuffley at that age. Hmm.
January 6, 2007
I went home to visit my family after New Year’s Day. I stay with mom. Between the two of us, we had about a week’s worth of scrap booking and quilting and other things to do. I was only home for 3 ½ days. You would be surprised what we got done though.
To Do List
1. Get Mom’s vacation photos in a scrapbook
2. Make a quilt for Joy, the new Granddaughter
3. Make a quilt for Zach, the new uncle
4. Get my picture book under control
5. Go sledding and play in the snow
We stopped to see the new granddaughter on the way to Mom’s. She is pretty, although she looks like her Daddy, and he is not “pretty.” 
I got to Mom’s around supper time Tues.
We spent Tues night putting pictures and mementos together from Mom’s trip to New Zealand. The Australia ones will have to wait. I left some pre-made pages so Mom can do some herself too. I am not a huge scrap booker person, but I have plenty of stuff. I try to keep it down to what I can haul in one trip, using only a 12”X12” crate. Probably I should get something else to transport my stuff because the crate thing is pretty unhandy. There must be a good reason that I am the only person who carries a crate to scrap booking get-togethers. You could go broke scrap booking if you don’t watch out.
Wednesday I wanted to make a quilt for the granddaughter, Joy. I don’t know what else to give her. I quit making baby quilts for my friends a few years ago when I realized it was not actually possible for me to make quilts and raise toddlers at the same time. Way too many no-nos, and too much stuff to keep putting away and getting out again. I dug out my two plastic drawers with baby quilt cloth in them and packed them to Mom’s. As I sorted through the fabric, lo and behold, I had a quilt in there! It was not pieced, but I had a good start on it. We got the top put together and Mom plans to machine quilt it. She says whoever cut the pieces out didn’t do it very straight. (oops) We had supper with my Dad and his girlfriend and my Grandparents.
Thursday My kids’ paternal grandmother has 29 grandchildren and a handful of great-grand children, and that is only their Dad’s side of the family. From personal experience I know how hard it can be to keep everyone straight, so I made a book for Lydia called “Lydia and the Jam Jam Girls” I used photos I already had of Lydia and got photos of grandmas and aunts and cousins in their jammies and put it all together with a little plot about going to bed. I can keep adding as necessary. Since Sarah was supposed to be Tommy, and I didn’t want a bunch of pictures of guys standing around in their underwear, I called hers “Sarah Reads a Book” and I got photos of male relatives reading various things from a cousin with the newspaper sports section to my truck driver uncle reading a book on semis, while seated in the open door of his truck. Then along came Tommy and Zach. What to do for them…I decided on animals and pets for Tommy, we can do counting and species, then for Zach it will be hats and colors. We just keep adding to it, my first cousins and my kids’ cousin’s children and my step-father’s family and baby sitters. I was pretty organized through Sarah, but it fell apart after that. Mom and I spent all our free time Thurs getting that put together, so I can complete Tommy and Zach’s books. We also worked on Joy’s quilt, and played in the snow a little.
Friday I told Dad we would go out to his place for the morning. He lives where I grew up, a ranch 30 miles from town. The ladies played with their vintage Little People collection and Tommy flirted with breaking the lower hanging glass Christmas ornaments until noon, which was soup and “girl” cheese sandwiches, as the ladies call them. The kids took a nap and then Dad went to town, leaving me to take everyone to town in my car so we could meet him for supper. I spent all day using their wireless internet with my laptop, and getting five year’s worth of digital photos sent to Walgreen’s for printing via wireless rather than dialup. (Only $15 for 142 photos, not bad I thought, and they were ready two hours later!) We had Mexican for supper, I always want to do that when I go back. After I got back to Mom’s we put together Zach’s quilt. Mom had done the cutting, and I just sewed. We make a pretty good team, one of us pinning and ironing and the other sewing. She had a pattern for a quilt that she said would go together very quickly for Zach, and it did, in just an evening. The back of it is a map of the US. When it is all tied and bound, I will post a photo. I have managed to make a baby quilt for each of my babies, but have finally resorted to making only the occasional Christmas stocking for my friends, see my Christmas photo for examples.
Saturday My cousin had a baby Friday, so I went to see her in the hospital. I thought she was only about six-years-old, but she says she is 26, so that must be old enough to be a mom. It is hard to believe that she is all grown up, I remember when she was born. She had a beautiful 5 lb baby girl, causing me baby envy as well. Zach was nearly twice that. Mom drove with us after lunch to meet my Stepdad who had escaped the chaos at his own home to his son’s house to spend time with his other grandkids. My stepbrother lives somewhere near half way between mom’s house and ours. That worked well for me. Five hours by yourself in a car with four kids can be a little rough.
December 26, 2007
Christmas found us with a cedar tree from the pasture. Since Husband decided we were going primitive with the tree, I decided to go primitive with the decorations. We put up lights, popcorn/cranberry strings and paper chains. I had forgotten how frustrating it is to string popcorn. Husband wanted to hang ornaments, but I decided since I get to take the tree down by myself, I was not going to do any more than I had to. Frankly, I think it looks pretty nice. I was opposed to the whole cedar idea, but we “aged” the tree two weeks in the garage, and most of the smell had dissipated by Dec. 23, when we brought it in. Pine has a nice scent. Cedar smells like you could make vodka from it and I have a perpetual headache now.
Sarah got the fish she asked Santa for. A close look at the aquarium will reveal what genetic modification can do. Unless they came up with a fish tattoo… Regardless, we overheard something about “fwopping on my bwankie” from the other room. A quick count revealed all four were back in the tank, but one still looked pretty nervous. We had made the mistake of leaving the net beside the aquarium, and the temptation was too much for Sarah. Remember this is the kid who likes to experiment. I guess we will keep the aquarium in the kitchen. I could put it behind the computer and use the light for a desk lamp, it does get a little romantic in this corner. I am a little afraid that Tommy will be tempted. He is a climber.
Tommy was completely enthralled with his Little People Gas Station. He is a fan of anything on wheels these days. I took everything out of the boxes and constructed it several days ago. It took me 30 minutes to get the garage out of the box and about 20 to put it all together. Altogether, I came out nearly 30 twist ties ahead, but I lost nearly an hour of my life. Toy packaging has gone from obnoxious to plain old evil.
Santa got each kid a toy, and we bought each kid a toy, so we didn’t accumulate too much. Lydia was a little lost, I think she was hoping for something more, but she didn’t know just what. She got her train and a doll with clothes. We got the ladies Groovy Girls dolls. Lydia fell in love with Laila Ali this last spring while she was on Dancing With the Stars. We even wrote her a fan letter, but she didn’t reply. I got Lydyia a darker skinned doll and a sparkly gown.
The biggest hit was the flashlights. We play safari sometimes before bedtime. I take a bunch of stuffed animals and hide them around the living room. I then turn off the light and let them look for the animals with flashlights. This is huge fun, but the best part is our grownup flashlights will still be operational should the power go off.
My favorite gift was the one from the person who had the least understanding of Christmas. Zach slept from 11:00 until 5:30, and in his bassinet! Husband got me something I really didn’t need, or have room for, but he did put thought and effort into it, so I won’t complain. He got me plates, about seven or so. My dishes were premiums at grocery stores or gas stations in the 1940s or 1950s. They are nothing special, you can find them in antique stores all over. They usually run about $7 each. I have 12 plates already. This means I can go a looong time between washing dishes! He was looking for a butter dish, but didn’t find one. I would rather have a teapot, but they are maybe $100 or so, and pretty rare.
I got Husband a cordless drill. That is what he asked for, and in that many words. When he opened it, he cautiously mentioned that it didn’t have certain features he wanted, like being ½ inch and having more volts or whatever. I showed him where the receipt was attached and explained that I had about 30 to choose from and knew he would be taking it back. No harm no foul.
My sister-in-law and her friend came over for dinner. It was a nice meal, but not too big. The friend ran interference with the kids so we could get the meal put together. I made a homemade sour cherry pie. MMMmmm. She brought leftovers from her meal last night. After dinner, we loaded the dishwasher and looked at the pile still towering on the counter. I told her it wouldn’t bother me a bit to let them sit until the dishwasher was empty again. She was ok with that, so now I have to get them washed.
December 22, 2007
Here are my answers to a questionnaire I saw posted. Most of my answers would have been pedestrian, so I edited some. Ok, a lot. It also involves some plagiarism, hope you don’t mind…
1. If your doctor told you TODAY that you were pregnant, what would you say?
I would leap off of the exam table, and bludgeon the Dr. with the knee thumper thing and then grab him by his tie and choke him to death. I would do this in the flimsy tissue paper gowns they give you for what they refer to as privacy, not even stopping to clothe myself. I would then shut myself up in the exam room, turn out the lights and cry.
12. What did the last text message you sent say?
Am I a grandmother?
15. What is a goal you would like to accomplish in the near future?
Getting Zach to sleep in his crib or bassinet, rather than in my bed
42. What do you like to listen to before you go to bed?
Nothing, I read.
43. What is the last movie you watched?
“Jerry Maguire”. Loved it.
44. What does your iPod have in it right now?
I don’t have an iPod
45. How many close friends do you have?
Not many. One or two
46. Are your nails painted?
No, I usually only polish my toenails and only in the summer.
47. Do you wear a lot of jewelry?
No, I wear my wedding ring everyday. That’s about it.
48. What are you drinking right now?
Water
49. Do you get a full eight hours of sleep a night?
Are you kidding me?? HA!
50. How’s life treating you?
So far so good.
Questions they should have on the questionnaire.
51. What weird quirk do you have?
I like to clean out my toothpaste lid a couple of times during the lifespan of a tube with a Q-tip. It makes it feel like a new tube again. Funny, you would think the rest of my house would be clean…
52. What fictional character would you like to be?
Anne Shirley
53. What makes you proud?
I learned to text message, a little.
December 22, 2007
Bah Humbug. I have hardly put out any Christmas stuff, not even the pretty lighted tree for the front yard. We have the stockings up, a wreath on the door, the manger set up and a quilted wall hanging in the dining room. That is it. I don’t dare put the village up, since Tommy is into everything. The tree is actually in the garage, for just that reason. I guess that isn’t very fair to the kids, but I just am not up to it this year. I think we’ll bring the tree in this weekend, otherwise Sarah’s goldfish will get cold when Santa drops them off. I am thinking we’ll do the old fashioned thing and just use popcorn, cranberries and paper chains to decorate the tree. I did get my cards out. I do a newspaper looking thing, in third person. Hopefully it’s not too offensive, I would rather read a Xeroxed letter than look at nothing more than somebody’s signature at the bottom of a card.
I got everything sorted out among our six kids, and put together Tommy’s car/ramp thing. I can’t wait to play with it! Still need to do all the wrapping. Kari, a senior in High School is getting a tool box with tools. I got a floral handled screwdriver for Christmas last year, and Husband has been coveting it. It was made like a tool for a man, not a cheap “girly” tool, so I got one for her, and some other tools, including a 7oz hammer, just the right size for a woman. I also got her the Daring Book for Girls. It looked like it had some practical advice for the college freshman. Don’t know what to get Chris. Might wait until after Christmas, if he is not coming anyway.
Betcha didn’t know that I am a grandmother. Yeah, neither did I until last week. Step-son Chris and his girlfriend had a little girl this summer. We really like the girlfriend, and we are the last people to judge someone for an unexpected baby, as two of ours were just that (although we were married), but Chris has been reluctant to tell us, actually he hasn’t yet. The girlfriend sent us a Christmas card with her and her daughter’s names and a photo. 
I have since spoken with her on the phone. Husband last spoke to Chris November 9, after Zach was born (and Husb’s birthday), but he had not been in contact much for several months, and it is worse now. The kids live in different towns, about two hours apart, but they are dating again. They broke it off for a while, and got back together after the baby was born. I hope they can make it work. Babies need Daddies, and when Chris grows up some, he will be a super father! He was great with our kids when he lived here last fall. He didn’t do diapers, but maybe on his own kid it would be different. {an aside…The sexiest thing I have ever seen a man do is change somebody else’s baby’s diaper, seriously.} Chris is currently selling vacuum cleaners door to door. That can’t be an easy life. She works at a gas station and as a nanny and is completing an associate’s degree online from a local college. Just writing that makes me tired.
I guess I will try to see the baby as I will go through their town on my way to see my folks, who live two hours beyond. Maybe I could see my step-daughter as well. I miss her.
I did find out that although she won’t answer her cell phone, or return calls, she does return texts. Immediately. I told Husband that is was worth 10 cents a pop to me to be able to communicate with her. I actually texted her when I opened the card from the girlfriend. She called as soon as she got out of school and did some explaining. It is a long story, and there is no need to repeat it, as that horse is out of the barn and over the hill.
My mother is excited to make a quilt for the baby. We need to make one for Zach too. I guess I will go visit back home after Christmas.
December 19, 2007
My children are very different from each other. We think of Lydia as the Manager of the crew. Sarah is in Research and Development and Tommy currently serves as the Beta Tester. Lydia will decide what they should do, Sarah will figgure out how to accomplish it, and Tommy is the guinea pig. So far, at 5 weeks, Zach has shown little interest in interacting with his siblings.
The oldest, Lydia, lives up to what you expect an older child to be, a leader. Once we went to the library for story time, but the volunteer did not show up, so there were two moms and four kids. Lydia organized the children into a semi circle around her then she “read” a couple of books to her audience. When she was done with the books, she took the kids over to another area for a “craft” project then she had them sit in front of the TV (which was off) so they could “watch” a video. The children were happy to mind her and follow instructions. Lydia was 3 at the time, Sarah was 2, and the other children were 3 and 1 years of age. My husband says Lydia will be the first woman president of our country. I hope this is not so, not necessarily because of the current candidate, but in the next 30 years, surely some woman will be elected president!
Sarah is as independent as they come. She wants to do it herself, by inventing a new way, and in her own sweet time. She does not like to conform, and plays dress up every single day of the year. Two stories illustrate her personality. We went to an ice cream shop to order sundaes when Sarah was 3. She listened carefully to everyone else then confidently ordered an “I cweam Tuesday.” She is mechanically inclined, at 3 Sarah figured out how to buckle herself into her car seat. I am not convinced that at age 5 Lydia could operate the latch, I know my mother can’t.
Even the names my girls give their dolls illustrates their differences. Lydia, the girly girl, has dolls named Emily, Billie, Denise and Abdul. No nonsense Sarah is more interested in animals, and has Zebra, and Sad Baby the polar bear. Sad Baby gets his name from the little bear mouth sewn into his face. Her dolls really don’t have names except for Pink Doll, who is, yes you guessed it, pink.
Tommy, at 17 months, is too young to have solidified his specific aspirations. He spends a lot of time defending himself and his rights with his sisters (non-verbal tattling). It will be fun to see where he fits into our “company”. Advertising? Marketing? Finance?
If you go to a Chinese restaurant and read the paper placemats, you will find that Lydia and I are dogs, Husband and Tommy are horses, Zach is a pig, and Sarah, well she is a monkey.
I made gingersnaps today and we invited our neighbors over for cocoa (which they gave us for Christmas) and cookies. It was nice to visit with them. She was a teacher, and she asked if I had made a school decision. Lydia will be in Kindergarten next year. Boy is that hard to believe! We are in one school district, school #1, but we are on the far edge of it. We are just as far from two other schools. School #2 is in the community to which we belong, where we have friends and neighbors. School #3 is a parochial school with 25 kids, where we also know people. School #2 has a bus stop down the road a ways, saving me driving 7 miles to drop off a kid at school #1. Actually it would be 9, since I would probably take the highway. Husband and I both attended public schools the same size as school #3, and Lydia went to pre-school there last year. I wonder if they have a sibling discount, tuition would kill us! I am not opposed to public school, nor do I feel strongly about parochial school, heck it isn’t even our religion. It is actually the size which appeals to me, and their lunch always smelled so good! I need to do some investigation, and I need to ask questions, but which ones? Two babysitters from school #2 told me that it is really clique-y, and they were happy to transfer to school #4 for high school. Neighbor taught in school #1 and worked as the computer guru in school #2. Of course, their granddaughter attended school #3.
December 16, 2007
We went to church today. They had a pageant, Lydia was Mary and Sarah was the angel. They were the only two girls in our little church old enough to participate in the pageant. Sarah is so little, and she was so intent on her role of walking up the aisle, it was cute. Zach seems to have no intention of sleeping tonight. He wore his tuxedo to church, and the little girl his age wore a beautiful dress, it looked like baby prom.
When we got home, Husband and I performed open door surgery on the dishwasher. He was the surgeon, and I handed him instruments and cleaned the gunk out of the parts he removed. It was nearly as gross as real surgery. I run vinegar or koolaid through on a regular basis too. He put it all together, ran a rinse, took it apart again and recleaned the thing and put it together again. My glasses are transparent now! You know, I don’t remember my parents doing this sort of thing, did we buy a cheap diswasher or are they making them cheaper these days? This is the second time we have done this since 9 years ago when our old one went out over Thanksgiving and we bought this one new. Maybe I should look into changing soaps, but I am not good at changing these types of things. I still wear Levis, because I wore them in grade school.
The only other excitement around here is that I am going with some friends to a larger town to shop tomorrow. I hope to find myself some clothes. I have either been pregnant or trying to loose pregnancy weight since 2002, and my wardrobe looks like pre 2000. I am not much of a group shopper, but I think I need advice on what is in style since it is no longer the 1980s. I also need to pick up some gifts for my step-kids. I haven’t seen them much in the last 24 months, so it will be hard to find something appropriate.
I guess Tuesday I will try to decorate for Christmas. If I keep putting it off, it will be unnecessary! I did take down the last of the Autumn stuff today. Well, Zach is not happy, I better see what I can do about that.