Woo
hoo! I have signed school papers, fed a
toddler, and fixed my daughter’s hair for school all before getting out of
bed. Hyperproductive day ahead no
doubt, so I’m posting:
Hahaha! I wrote that yesterday. No wait, two days ago. Left it in to have a good chuckle at
myself. Ah the hubris! Oh well.
Almost a week later, I am still recovering from the twenty-hour
round-trip Thanksgiving family van voyage down south and back again. Honestly though, I have greatly missed you,
my dear invisible—possibly imaginary—audience.
J Thanks for checking in. Do let me know if you have any Thanksgiving
stories to share yourself; I don’t want to always do all the talking here. Or
you could post a really nasty comment so I can make fun of you. J That would be diverting. Meanwhile, I really need to redo this blog
format; all I’ve learned how to do so far is change the background really,
which I need to do soon for the advent of Advent… Hmm.
I
want you to know that I certainly planned on posting before this, but I ran
into various obstacles the past few days, above and beyond the usual unpacking
and catching up. Often literal
obstacles. Like my three year old standing
in front of me with the dreaded CandyLand game; her version is played by leaping
from one treat to another, while her baby sister chews the color cards. Ironically, this sugar-obsessed game was
produced to me right after I told her she could not have her sister’s leftover
birthday cake for breakfast. Seriously
Veggietales… Veggieland maybe?
Anyway. I was a bit delayed as
well by the realization that a hard-boiled egg (mercifully still shelled) was
lost in my king-sized bed, a sensorial attempt to teach my toddler about
ovoids. Oh yes, and my eight year old
turned… nine, completely without my permission. This required the yearly pilgrimage to the penitence of Chuck E
Cheese, where I greet the migraine with a determined smile, thinking I really
REALLY need to enjoy this because they are only young once. I almost convince myself to do this…
Other
obstacles included me tangling with a cord and slamming into my beloved Shark
steam mop, which I somehow managed to step on in the debacle and snap in half.
I now know what my husband will be getting me for Christmas. And while I’m on a requiem for appliances, I
must have a moment of silence for my GPS, which faded away into silence before
our trip south for the holiday, naturally.
I miss it greatly, and await the Cyber Monday-ordered replacement with
mixed feelings. Will this new tech
relationship be as good as the first?
Remains to be seen. I will keep
an open mind, though my former GPS just knew me better, my contacts and
frequent destinations, the place I call home… sniff!
One
last excuse I will mention is the health issues we’ve been having over here: my
baby is entertaining some stomach issue that causes the need for diaper changes
on the hour. That and my RA—an old
friend of mine—made itself known in an unique way this week by causing both of
my hands to swell painfully; usually it goes for my left, but this time it
showed no favoritism. This current
condition is not particularly conducive to typing. I’m waiting for doctors to call back as I pound away here with
about 65% accuracy…. Loving the backspace right now folks…
But
back to our trip. I used to love to
travel. Really. Car, plane, boat, train. My husband and I drove cross-country for our
honeymoon for crying out loud. (No, I
don’t recommend this, but we did it. If
we got a do-over, we’d choose an all-inclusive resort at a tropical
destination, which would greatly reduce the anxiety produced for a new couple
driving in the dark around canyons in national parks, seeking a place to spend
the night. Fun stories though.)
I
think my latest Thanksgiving trip has finally cured me of all wanderlust. We hadn’t even made it out of the state when
we found ourselves in the emergency room.
My poor coughing husband managed to badly pull/tear a muscle while
driving, and during his x-ray they found out—oh, by the way—he had
pneumonia. Did that stop us? Not us.
Armed with new prescriptions three hours later, I was driving at a nice
clip between concrete barriers in a construction zone with my stiff, sore,
sedated, and snoozing spouse by my side.
Screams from the back then alerted me to the fact that my three year old
had successfully let herself out of her car seat and had minimal desires to
return, despite the highly persuasive shouts of her older siblings, “Get back
in there!!! Aw man….Mommmm!!”
The
nearest Walmart produced a new [Pink!
It’s pink! Your FAVORITE color!] car seat for her. And sometime around 3 AM, we made it to our
destination: a cabin located—somewhat oddly—right beside the site of the Battle
of Chancellorsville. It did help me
keep my complaints to a minimum recalling how much sacrifice once occurred in
the area. We spent some time in DC,
which I’ve always loved… very grateful I was able to share that experience with my kids!
Though on further inspection, the Museum of Natural
History is essentially a dead zoo. Just
saying. Still, the city inspired
patriotism even in my youngest it seems.
This
was followed by Thanksgiving with extended family, which went okay… despite the
fact that one of the family took suddenly ill, while another demonstrated more
concern for the well-being of the deceased poultry than for anyone else
present. But it was Thanksgiving
anyway, we said a heartfelt grace, and I got to hang out with my
sisters-in-law, which for me is always a positive. If I didn’t like them as people (which I do exceedingly) I could
not help but like them for their penchant of playing mommy makeover with
me. They initiated me into Black
Friday—both the late owl and early bird versions—and I have immerged, through
their stunning generosity, with more clothes than I have bought in my lifetime
to this point. I buy about one article
of clothing a year usually, and yes, I still wear stuff from college, but hey,
I thought I was doing okay. They did
not agree.
So
I’m back here, still tripping dazedly around piles of laundry to be
folded. I’m so very, very tired. I hope you all had a good thanksgiving. Will post again soon, but diaper duty is
calling again. Ttys, TLC
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