What We're Up To

My throat really hurts.  For the past week, it has been hurting but only at night.  Anywhere between 4-6 pm, one tonsil (but never both) would seem to get bigger and bigger, making swallowing and talking really painful.  Ibuprofen would help and since it never really bothered me during the day, I didn't really care. It seemed like a pretty benign cold.

Then, last night, the huge lump on one side of my throat actually woke me up at 3 am it was so painful. I took some more Advil and some Nyquil for good measure and could. not. wake. up this morning. I did wake up just enough to get Sam and Henry down to the bus and probably dangerously drove Seth to school but then I went back to bed and slept until 10:30 this morning.  I had the strangest dreams I had in a long, long time.  I was out in public wearing my winter nightgown (long sleeved, mid calf) but also had on a pair of mid-calf garment bottoms on that the nightgown couldn't cover and I kept trying to get into a sitting position where I could curl my legs up so no one could tell.  It was so stressful!  Especially when a dog kept crawling onto my lap.  I think I was in a nursing home of some sort because older people kept coming up to me wanting to pet the dog.  That is what a 3 am Nyquil dose will do to your subconscious brain!  And my throat still hurts today. I am so desperate I may even attempt at gargling salt water. This has not gone well in the past.

Besides my throat pain, it's been a good week. A bit stressful, which has me stressed. You see, February was my month to host bookclub and it is always on the fourth Thursday of the month...so...it was last night. The way our bookclub does it is whoever is hosting chooses the book and then puts on dinner for everyone. As our group currently has 14 members, it can be overwhelming if everyone decides to come.  Lucky for me, only 5 decided to come so it was a very doable dinner for 6. I don't know when I turned into a person who gets anxious having people over but I definitely do now. All week long, I was dreading Thursday night and mentally couldn't wait for it to all be over. I have done some reflecting and think it boils down to a few things. One, I am simply out of practice. Having people over must follow Newton's first law of motion: an object at rest will stay at rest unless an external force acts upon it. The external force was five ladies coming over to discuss (maybe. You never know how much the book will actually get discussed) Beautiful Ruins and their imminent arrival led to me finally putting some pictures in frames, getting a few new serving bowls so I didn't have to have pots on the table, and coving my very worn table top with a tablecloth.  It also involved lots of food shopping, cleaning and then cleaning up. The evening went fine and I think everyone had a nice time but the forced object in motion is craving its usual rest again. But, I know it'd be better if I stay in motion and become more social again.

Jay has had some A.I. (Artifical Insemination) success already.  This is a big week for him as the heifers he impregnated by insemination are due to deliver if his technique and fancy bull sperm worked (that sentence needs to be taken in context or else it seems very weird). Out of the ten he attempted, three have delivered.  Unfortunately, all three have been heifers (he is trying to breed club steers for the boys). All ten got pregnant but if they don't deliver this week, then they got pregnant from his dad's bull a month later.  Every day, he is this funny mix of excited and worried and is over checking on the cows all the time as two of the baby heifers born this week had to be pulled because they were too big.  I'm a thousand percent certain that he wasn't quite as worked up any of the four times I delivered our children.

Seth competed in History Day this week and made a documentary on Jesse Owens success at the 1936 Nazi Olympics as a turning point of attitude towards blacks and competitive sports and did so well that he and his partner qualified to go on to the state competition. He is quite pleased although I don't think he has the kind of competitive spirit or natural fascination with history to spend the time making the kind of improvements he needs to make to make his project really good and coherent.  I was relieved when on of the judges echoed my own advice and said having "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry play during slides of Owens racing wasn't really appropriate. His story telling and research are definitely the reasons the judges ok'd them to state and not his annotated bibliography that includes the name, "Dogg, Snoop" on it (he must have produced the Katy Perry song).



Presenting the documentary to the three judges, including the superintendent of our school district.



Seth and Jack with their award.

Sam is on track for getting eye surgery in 12 days. He is still wearing the prism stickers on his glasses and his eyes still look crossed but at his last appointment, the ophthalmologist felt assured that she had all the information she needed to get the best alignment for his eyes. That meant no more missing Tuesdays to drive to Grand Junction and back and not missing basketball practice.  Unfortunately, a nasty fall after a ski jump sidelined him this week after he severely bruised both heels. He wouldn't put any weight on them all week and walked on his tip toes. The tipping point to normal walking came when his calf muscles became more sore than his heals. He is healing nicely and will hopefully be walking and seeing straight soon.



Eyes are a little straighter with this prism stickers.  His doctor said that his eyes "eat prisms" which means that he adjusts quickly but will adjust even more than they need to, which skews the data.

Henry came home with a very bad report from his teacher the week before our winter break. I'd blame it on me being gone, as he has had those kinds of reports from teachers in the past when I am gone and his routine is off, but it was the week of Valentine's and so probably had nothing to do with my absence. I don't know what set him off but when his speech teacher, reading teacher and 1st grade teacher all report that he is surly, uncooperative, talks back and says everything is "boring" and "he already knows everything" then mom and dad don't let it slide. He also had a bad report from his ski teacher two weeks ago and screamed the entire ride home that he "hated skiing" "skiing is stupid" and "I never want to ski again!" only to be perfectly fine this last week.  It's all about his mood and I don't know what sets him off.  Mood or not, he can't be disrespectful like that and he's been cut off from all electronics this week and his bedtime moved from 8:30 to 7 pm to ensure a well rested psyche. He really is a charmer but he can also be quite difficult if he's unmotivated or tired and it is sort of embarrassing when he shows this side of him to his teachers. He's had a good week so far.  I'm hoping he doesn't get the winter blues because this seems to happen almost every year at this point of the school calendar.




His teacher sent this picture to me. I guess he can be happy some of the time.  He's in the blue coat.

Daniel is at a super fun stage. He's still not talking or saying any words, including mama or dada, and while I don't think that's a red flag, having gone through Henry's speech delay discovery has me a bit wary. He does mimic intonation and you can tell he's trying to say, "Where's Daniel?" and "Peek-a-boo!"by the way his voice rises and falls. He's super expressive and loves to give a funny glare or pout with his eyebrows down and furrowed only to raise them up and smile when his internal comedic timer dings.  He loves his stuffed elephant and it has become his comfort object at night. I don't know if I just sleep through his wakeful periods at night at home or he quietly self soothes but whenever we travel, he  does not sleep well. We spent the February 8th-14th up in Denver and he didn't sleep through the night once. It makes this girl who likes to travel not like travel quite as much. Sleep or no sleep, I'll keep him because he is so darn cute.



Fun little mess maker. Good thing the tablecloth from bookclub dinner was still on the table this morning!