Catch Up

Five more weeks of school.

I can't wait.

The last two weeks  have been insane.  The build up to the last two weeks was equally insane.

Two weeks ago was our spring break.  Hubby suggested we go on a Disney Cruise.  Okay.

Then he suggested we take my niece, my daughter's favorite person in the world, who is between them in age.  She is a natural peace maker, and a great foil when Thing 1 and 2 start bickering...  Brilliant!!

Her parents (my brother and his wife) agreed even though it didn't coincide with her spring break and would require her to miss a week from school.

We flew to Orlando on the evening of the 20th of April, and after riding around in the biggest personal rental car on the planet, just shy of being a city bus, the girls loved it.  Our car at home has a third row, and is big... but this was ridiculous and Hubby couldn't wait to turn it back in and get on the boat.

Which we did the next day, Sunday the 21st.

Since there were five of us, we got the extra big stateroom on the top of the boat, right under the swimming pool deck.  It was lovely.  And alarmingly convenient to the self dispensing ice cream machines.

 I was especially pleased that there was so much room in such a tiny little space.  The bathrooms were brilliant - two little bathrooms - one with a sink and a toilet, one with a sink and a terribly clever shower/tub combination.  Had I known such a thing was available when we refinished our basement, I would have seriously considered it.

Though they consider it a five day cruise, it's really three days on the ship.  The days at either end boarding and disembarking hardly count.
The first day was in Nassau, which we had heard from my brother was a tropical resort where you can go look at all the beautiful people hanging out.  So we decided to take advantage of an excursion where they take you out to swim with the dolphins.  We had the worst weather on our trip here, and had to interrupt our dolphin swim experience to go stand under the gazebos while a tropical deluge rained down on us.
This is also where I ruined Thing 2's underwater camera.  I was so proud of myself for remembering it, but must have not closed it  up tight somewhere along the road, and it filled with sea water and died in the middle of our excursion, shortly after I got in the water.  Not sure if or how I can even get the pictures off of its corpse.  Hence the only photos I have of this excursion are the ones that we paid for before we got back on the boat to ferry us off the island.  But it was delightful and memorable, and we all got to get the foot push across the pen from the dolphins.  Though there was a beautiful beach there and I had scheduled us the earlier swim so we could stay and play on the beach, it was raining, so we went back to the boat.

The next day was Castaway Cay, which we learned is confusingly pronounced Key.  I feel compelled to edit out the whole long paragraph of how we found this out. Suffice it to say our assigned dining companions were very very informative.  Very.

Castaway Cay was just beautiful, and not as crowded as it could have been, based on the number of empty deck chairs on the beach all around us.

We were late on the beach because we had to stop and buy some flip-flops for the girls, who had left their crocs in a cubby by the AquaDuck the night before. (They had been picked up by the Disney crew but were slow to get turned in to Lost and Found and we didn't get them until the next afternoon.)  Our only other real problem was that my cool super strong sunscreen was totally and completely inefficient.  I have posted a scathing review on Amazon and thrown away two bottles of the stuff I brought, but it was too late, Thing 1 was completely fried and the rest of us were merely badly burned.  Except my niece, who used a much less powerful but actually effective sunscreen.  Luckily I used an effective non-pore-blocking sunscreen on our faces, and the girls wear rashguard shirts, but still all other exposed skin was red.  Thing 1 put on her long sleeved rashguard (shown in the picture above) too late.

The slide was fun, the ice cream was fun, the beach was lovely.  Hubby napped on the deck chair, I hovered and relaxed.

The sunburn made everyone crabby the next day, our day on the boat.  Also the girls decided they were too old for the kids area they were registered for, and would rather come back and watch movies in the room.  They did go to a screening of Oz in the big theater, but other than that we just kind of puttered around the boat and our stateroom and veranda, enjoying the proximity to the ice cream machine one deck up.

When we got off the boat the next day, Hubby's luggage was missing.  We had put it outside our stateroom as instructed, but it was not waiting for us with the rest of the luggage in the big luggage warehouse after getting off the boat. Poor Hubby was rather limited in his wardrobe and was doing washing for the rest of the trip.  Spoiler - His bag somehow partied its way across the country and turned up at a United luggage desk in Los Angeles two days after we returned home.

When we gave up the search for the lost bag, we drove to Universal Studios for two more days of fun.
I found that Universal is neat but a little dodgier than Disney.  The rides are rougher, and maybe I've reached a certain age but I found myself getting more nauseous than I ever have before.  There's not quite so much Magic.  I was glad we went, but not sure I need to go back. Our favorite part was Harry Potter World, where the Dragon Challenge ride was probably as close as anyone could get to riding a real dragon.  A dragon who would be happy if you were to be flung from off its back.

The girls bought wands, and of course we had butter beer, pumpkin juice, and bought chocolate frogs and bertie botts beans.

At the end of the 1st day at Universal, the girls were getting so run down that we left early for dinner, and both Thing 2 and my niece fell asleep in the restaurant waiting for the food to come.  We had pretty much run them down to the nub.

I think we were all getting tired and ready to come home, but all in all it was a lovely vacation.

Writing another post while waiting for Hubby to come home

March 3rd ----

Geez.  Last time I blogged I was waiting for Hubby to come home from a big European Trip.

He comes home tonight from India.

He's been gone a week.  Just 8 days.  For an international trip, that's pretty short for him.

He'll be home a week, then he leaves for a nasty one.  Russia.  New Zealand.  Who knows where else.

We had a truly lovely time in California!

Once I got over my guilt - wait! Have I gotten over that guilt yet? hmmmm..
Anyway even though I DID NOT create a miracle and DID NOT get everyone and everything packed up a day early and DID NOT accomplish everything I had to a day early despite being very sick the week before, we arrived as scheduled on Saturday.

We had two days in Disneyland, a day at the Wild Animal Park or whatever they call it now.  Disney was crowded, as expected on a Sunday, but surprisingly so on the following Thursday.  Yes, it was the Thursday after President's day, but geez, why aren't these people keeping their kids in school?  Surely the whole of the western half of the United States doesn't have the whole week off, like we do?  I thought we were an anomaly!  Pictures should follow here - I'll get on that.

It is always too short a time, and we drove back just in time to beat a very nasty winter storm that hit the next morning.  I had to drive down the canyon to fetch the dog and the guinea pigs, and had a rather harrowing drive home.  The canyon was closed to anyone without 4 wheel drive or chains.  I saw several cars off the road, some just spinning out in the slow lane, unable to climb the hill.  I do really like our car, by the way, with snow tires on we just trundle along past all the problems!

March 13th...
I keep not publishing posts because I think I'll get pictures uploaded.  At this rate, I'll never post again.  So until the pictures get added, I'll just put up the post.

Hubby got back from India, and left on Monday for New Zealand.  He'll get back in a couple weeks, be home for a day and a half, then head to Russia.
I like it better when he travels in the states.

California or Bust

Hubby's in Budapest.

Before that it was London.

Before that it was Paris.

Before that it was Stockholm.  Where he left three shirts (DANG!), one of which he said was his favorite that I gave him for Christmas.  I don't know which one it is, I don't know if we'll ever see it or its friends again.

He comes home tomorrow. (Snoopy dance!)

The next day we leave for California, our (nearly) annual trip to stay with my parents in the condo they rent on the beach.  For a WHOLE WEEK!  A week of sun and beach and Disney and whatever else we want to do and no snow!

I expect fabulous things from this vacation.  And yes, it always delivers!

I believe that the day after we get back from this vacation Hubby leaves for India, New Zealand... and I don't know where else.

It'll be a nasty stretch.

Thing 1 is nearly done with wearing the splint on her broken arm.  Her arm seems completely better, and we are so happy she picked the splint instead of the cast as she has started taking it off briefly when it completely annoys her.  This means she doesn't completely annoy the rest of us.

I still haven't sent out my Christmas letter.  I have actually written one, I was just trying to get some cute photos to go in it...  I was planning on doing a Valentine's letter, but can see that's not going to happen.

Last week was the book fair, I only volunteered for one shift a day, but seemed to have somehow lost more than the two hours a day I spent at the school.  And it would seem I caught a nasty bug there - Friday morning I started coming down with something that had me flat on my back miserable all day Saturday and Sunday, barely seeing the light on Monday.  Tuesday was marginally better, and today I can at least function, though I still sound like I swallowed a frog.  And on top of all the catching up I need to do, there's the class Valentine's party I need to put on tomorrow, and the kids valentines that we have to do tonight, and riding lessons and art lessons and packing and getting everything ready to go, and getting the dog to the kennel, and the guinea pigs to the friend's.  We ought to be all packed up by Thursday night because my goal is to pick the kids up from school just after noon on Friday and keep on going!

I rarely meet my goals.

But that doesn't stop me from making them!

Another Broken Arm

Hubby bought a season pass to the closest resort, and has been going up whenever he can, an hour or a half day here and there.  He's kind of caught on the snowboarding thing, and has been really enjoying it.  The girls have just gone once for a private boarding lesson Hubby took them up for, then three times with the school program.   I hadn't gone at all (except for the day I did ONE RUN as chaperone for the girls program, but that's another story.)  So we went skiing (me) and snowboarding (the girls and Hubby) on Martin Luther King day.  

With the girls we kept to the bunny hill, and they were doing great.

Then Thing 1 was trying to do some toe turns, and some snow bunched up behind her heals, and she fell backward.  She'd been falling on her butt so much she was worried she broke her tailbone, so she put her hands out to catch herself, and...

It didn't look like anything bad to me, like she'd just rolled onto her butt.   I skied down to where Thing 2 was a little further down the mountain next to the lift, expecting Hubby and Thing 1 to come meet us.  But they didn't.  So sure was I that Thing 1 wasn't that badly hurt that Thing 2 and I went the rest of the way down, and got on the lift for another run.  Surely Hubby would have called me if there was anything wrong.  As Thing 2 and I were lifted up over the trees I saw Hubby and Thing 1 walking down the mountain, him carrying both of their boards.

He told me later he knew it was bad when she couldn't move her fingers. 

They found a ski patrol person who took them to the clinic on the mountain, where they took an x-ray and found Thing 1 had a "buckle" break, which is kind of like a crimp in the bone.

Thing 1 was in a splint for a week, then went in on Monday to the hospital to get a cast which she would have for three weeks.  Only the doctor gave her the option of a cast or a splint.  We chose the splint.  The cast was the choice for kids who wouldn't leave a splint on, he told us.  The more comfortable splint can be removed for bathing.  And for going to CALIFORNIA.  The cast/splint could officially come off February 18th, and we leave for California on the 15th.  This solved all the problems, and Thing 1 has been super about leaving it on, to the point that she was trying to put the bathing bag on it the other day.  She figured she didn't want to take it off too early.  Then even when I did take it off of her, she wouldn't get it wet.  I had to assure her it would be okay several times, and would feel good to wash her arm and hand.

Needless to say she's being very good about keeping the splint on.

Because my first ski day in 14 years was spent on the bunny hill and worrying about Thing 1, Hubby and I went back up on Wednesday for an adults only ski day.  It was horrible weather, snowing like crazy and very cold.  I had a ball.  I really love the skis my brother sold me (out of the goodness of his heart, a gesture I think he has regretted since and I am sorely tempted to give back to him except THEY'RE SO WONDERFUL THEY SKI THEMSELVES!) and had a great time skiing with Hubby.  Hubby, however, was quite disappointed with the weather, and just about the end of the day he took a spill getting off the lift and landed hard on the ice right as you get off the lift.  I think he bruised his pelvis or something.  He could hardly walk.

He felt much better the next day, but it did alarm me that snowboarding has already taken it's toll on 3 of my family members - Thing 1, Hubby, and my niece who took a nasty fall a couple weeks ago.

Yet Hubby wants to get us all season passes next year.  He is undaunted.

Mid December

I got our tree up right after Thanksgiving, and the house is all decorated up.  But I needed a new wreath for over the mantel.  I didn't want to spend a fortune, but I found most fake conifer wreaths were too expensive, or looked totally fake.  So I decided to make a ball wreath.

This is the end result:

Last year I'd redone the tree with those wild colors, so when I found mostly wild colored ornaments at Walmart, I decided to forge ahead and use them for the wreath.  One of the things I am pleased about is that it's mostly flat.  So it hugs the wall pretty well.  I actually liked it really well with just the pink, blue, and green larger balls, but some of the holes between the balls were kind of big.  In retrospect it might have been easier to wrap the wire frame in tinsel, or just cut pieces of tinsel and stuff them into the holes.

Change of topic:

Hubby is in Australia until Saturday.  He's been pingponging around between Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne and getting tired and lonely and ready to come home.  It comes down that he's a great traveler, but a lousy tourist.  He needs me for that, I'm a great tourist.

He took this with his photo stitching app

Change of topic:

On Thursday after I dropped the kids off at school, I went to the dentist, then went to TJ Maxx to do a little shopping.  I need some new jeans and until I lose some weight, I refuse to pay more than about $20.  I found a pair that will do, but as I was putting my own jeans back on, I noticed that I could see daylight - I had popped the fabric in the butt.  I have been walking around for HOW LONG, before today, with daylight showing up the butt of my jeans?

I had to go to confess to an employee that I needed to wear the new jeans out of the store.  She took me to the front cash register, where I had to go around behind the counter for them to take the electric alarm tag off the jeans.

My consolation is I was of course sitting down at the dentist's office, it was early so not a lot of people were out and about, and I'm hoping that most people look at my face, not my butt.  Unless they're behind me.  In that case I'm sure the inch of white underwear would draw the eye.  Sigh.

Change of topic:

Ever since we moved into this house I have hated how dark it is at night.  The outside lights we had were like large cans attached to the house, with light directly below them.  They light up a ten foot circle on the porch.  Everything else is in total darkness, including the stairs going up to the front door.  I was waiting for the garage remodel to be done before I dealt with it, because I knew I'd need new lights and would get ones that light up more than the circle below them... but also I put in a landscaping light system that I'd gotten at Home Depot. It was pretty easy to install and I'm really pleased with it.

Change of topic:

Thing 1 has always taken art classes, and I have struggled to find something for Thing 2 to involve herself in.

Well since we moved, the opportunity presented itself.  I got a lead on a really good horseback riding instructor.

She has taken three lessons, and absolutely loves it.  I really love the teacher.  She's this energetic young girl who is also teaching Thing 2 responsibility and independence and stick-with-it-ness more than I ever taught her.  She is so positive... I am so happy we found this teacher!  The only down side is it's a half hour drive out to the lesson, half hour back. And of course when you start riding, you can't practice at home, so she suggests we pay $60 more a month and do a partial lease, which will get us what we get now plus two more chances to ride per month, mostly unattended.  This works best if we can do it the same time as Thing 2's friend, so they can ride together and we can carpool.  Not quite there yet but I expect that's where we'll be.

Here is a little video of one of Thing 2's lesson.  This teacher doesn't need to go to the gym, she gets a great workout with each lesson.

Isn't she cute as a button?  

All right that's everything in a nutshell.

Gratitude

From Thing 1's Gratitude Journal

11/14/12

I am grateful for:

 *  Pets that bring me joy

 *  Smarts that help me find the way

 *  A loving family to give me a home

 *  A roof above my head

 *  A warm fire to comfort me

 *  Feet to walk the earth

 *  Eyes to witness the beauty

 *  Hands to hold friends in a hug

 *  A wonderful society

 *  Free agency to choose

 *  A sky filled with wonderful stars

This is the view from our front window the other evening..

 And from the back yard a few minutes later.

G'Day

Hubby left today for three weeks in Australia.  

I hate it when he goes this long.  And the fact that we're marching toward Christmas doesn't help.  There are several Christmas choir concerts for the kids that he's going to miss, and the church Christmas party.  And two full weekends, and two other half weekends.  He was here today, Saturday, but spent most of the day in somewhat frantic preparation to get on the plane this evening.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving.  My mother actually maintained her calm very well, right up until the end, when first she spilled the gravy thickening. "Did Grandma just swear?" Thing 1 whispered, then quietly disappeared from the kitchen, just missing what happened next. My mother was moving toward the stove with a large pot full of turkey drippings, and somehow knocked the pot on the edge of the range top, sending the drippings into an inexplicable fountain that arched up out of the pot like a gravy tsunami before it came crashing down all over the cooktop and sloshed straight out onto everyone standing in front of the stove.  It mostly splattered on my mother, standing shocked with the now half empty pot, and my husband and brother who were poised to help take the turkey out of the oven, and the rest oozing down all over the front of the stove and onto the floor.  My sister in law was on her knees wiping up the floor and stove front with the dishcloth that always hangs there before I could even close my mouth. I recovered and started throwing hand and dish towels from the drawer next to me across the room at anyone near the stove and they started mopping things up - dishtowels and gravy drippings sizzling on the glass cooktop.  My brother had the sense to turn down the stove top which was glowing volcano red at having all the pots suddenly removed from the surface.  Within just a few minutes everything was mopped up enough to continue, and preparations proceeded and dinner hit the table just about on schedule.

The food was fabulous.  Even the gravy, though four more cans of chicken broth were brought up from the storage room to try and make up for what was lost.

My brother and his family had to leave Thursday night, because my sister in law was hosting 40 some odd people of her side of the family on Friday for their Thanksgiving.  Just as they were leaving my favorite uncle and his family showed up - they ping pong back and forth every year between my mom's house and my aunt's house. This year was my aunt's house, but no matter where they go for Thanksgiving, my uncle's family always come to my mom's for the Black Friday shopping and Thanksgiving part Deux, which is basically a leftover repeat of Thanksgiving part one.  Even Kelso got more Thanksgiving than usual, and he gave the already cleaned stove front and floor a thorough licking before I attacked it one more time with glass cleaner because obviously it hadn't been cleaned thoroughly enough if it attracted the dog.

We went to "the Rise of The Guardians" in what is becoming a traditional Black Friday Kid's Movie Matinee trip, including all the interested adults.  In past years the uninterested adults continued shopping, but this year they got to stay home and take care of my cousin's babies.

We usually stay through until Saturday or Sunday, but because Hubby had so much to do before leaving for Australia, we bundled up and headed home on Friday night.

Today I started putting out Christmas.  I don't have the tree out, but got the girls help to put away Thanksgiving stuff and carry boxes of Christmas stuff upstairs.  Because we were still completely disorganized with moving/remodeling the basement last year, and the year before I was in my refusal to crawl through the eves to get out any more Christmas decorations than were absolutely necessary, some of this stuff hasn't seen the light of day for nearly three years.  And thanks to ebay, I have a mantel on the fireplace now where there was no mantel before, installed last week by my favorite carpenter.  The nutcrackers have a place to sit, and the stockings have a place to hang.

Now all we need is snow.