Blathering on

 Sometimes I really do forget I have a blog. Other times it's just a busy life season. Once in awhile it's both!

In the month of May, I've had about half a dozen physical therapy appointments and an OT check in on top of wrapping up the school year. Thing Three performed in both a band concert and the Memorial Day parade. I've had two follow up appointments from last year's docs, some dry needling, made a trip to my hometown for a weekend, snuggled babies at church, wrapped up one preschool class with a zoo field trip and an evening spring program, and this week is Thing Three's last week of school while I try to fit in all the online training I need to have done before the end of June. There was also a visit to a retirement home with the preK crowd in addition to my school fighting off yet another wave of germs. Yeesh. No wonder I'm tired!

Arm/shoulder-wise, things are... meh. I'm wearing my compression glove and sleeve daily, I'm doing my PT exercises more often than not, I'm still seeing more swelling than I'd like, but this may just be my new normal. I don't know how we're to know if the vein stayed open since the venogram without imaging, but none has been ordered yet and the follow up appointment isn't until the middle of next month. I'm wearing the reductor kit at night while I sleep, pumping in my cool Darth Vader vest and sleeve* daily and now have a mushroom-shaped pad? pocket? pouch? thing that I wear with the stalk end tucked inside a compression bra and the shroomy end sticking into my armpit. The thinking is that it will help bust up some scar tissue and increase range of motion by loosening all that up. Jury is still out. I've worn it to bed twice. I think I'll try alternating that with the reductor kit since when I do the kit then my hand is swollen in the morning but if I do nothing then this tightness isn't going to be helped even passively... I don't know. I now better understand being over something even while in the midst of going through something!

* Funny story- I was also issued a pair of shorts that attach to the pump because it's easier to order them and get it all at once than to add pieces later. I figured I'd never need the shorts, but whatever. Then I spent an afternoon vigorously yanking out honeysuckle bushes, including one extra hard yank which landed me on my "butt-ducks" as our kids used to say. I'd already been only a foot off the ground because I was using my legs in a squat instead of my back, but I still sat there laughing at myself for a minute. The next day, my butt-ducks and rear thighs were so tight and whiny that I thought, "hey! I can use the shorts!" So for two days that's what I did and, boy, if you've never had your butt-ducks rhythmically squeezed and released, it's really something. I don't know what, but it's something! I can just hear my Grammy and Gramps laughing at me!

I have little news to report on progress made in the basement since the death of the sump pump. We are looking at tile flooring because we know it's only a matter of time before the new sump pump also croaks and we have zero desire to rip out carpet and padding yet again. For the tile we have a first and second choice, we think. We have not taken measurements yet. We also have paint swatches since we were never wild about the color down there in the first place and it's been... well... this fall will be our 12th year here, I think, so we figured we might as well paint before we do the floor.

None of that was on the Bingo card for 2026. In fact, I have paint swatches taped up in the foyer because that's the room I'd painted most recently and it has held up the least well. When I showed Dada my colors, he sniggered and said it was exactly what was already on the walls and that at least I was consistent. I'd be offended except for the fact that he's right; they are almost identical. *sigh*

Thing Two made it home safely from his welding training this semester and has become a bump on a chair at the tall table. His basement bunker is out of the picture, so even though he's still not getting fresh air or sunshine, he's at least visible. Until he turns sideways, anyway, and then he disappears. He's so skinny! Miracles happen every day, and the proof is that my 20 year old Honda, Pepe the Pilot, survived the entire excursion of getting him to and from class daily through winter in Cleveland, involving both extremely rutted back roads and freeways of crazy drivers. Thank you for all the diligent prayers- they worked!

Thing One is working two jobs and having the typical summertime computer issues of something deciding to quit working and never mind that it has 8 years of art on it. Pshaw. Why should it boot up and do its job? This is in addition to whatever maintenance issues the jobs themselves run into. I believe the quote I heard was, "why is it whenever something happens we always have to tear out a wall??" Apparently when someone puts a coffee pot under a leak and then never checks it again... well, let's just say that we have all been introduced to our friend Gravity and that it doesn't bode well. Otherwise, having fun with the housemates and living the dream.

And we still have Boooooosley, who turned 9 on Cinco de Mayo, is no smarter than when we brought him home at 4 months old, and will probably live forever. Loudly. Ridiculous.

I hope all of you experience a GENTLE transition from spring to summer- goodness knows we all have whiplash here from Ohio being wishy-washy at best about what season it thinks it is- and that the end of the school year brings a routine in which you can breathe, and I don't just mean allergy relief. Take good care of you and revive your spirits. 

Not lost!

 Sorry guys, I'm kindergarten tired, haha. It's back to school! I'm thrilled to say that I'm also back at school, both subbing and for the month of September at least, being an aide. I'm having a ball in the wing that holds our youngest students, but I also do not have the same energy allotment as the 5 year olds. Attention span, maybe, but definitely not the energy! 

Unfair that kids who fight naps get to have them and adults who need them don't. 

Suck it up, buttercup, I guess.

Anyhoo, our high school home team has lost all three of their football games thus far. The band sure is having a good time, and our kid in particular, who is mainlining Pixie Sticks and sour Skittles and God alone knows what else. Dada and I watched in fascination as he dumped sugar into his mouth, washed it down with Coke, played a snatch of a song, and repeated the cycle with more Pixie Sticks. I'm still amazed the entire bleacher section wasn't vibrating from the vast amount of sugar coursing through just him, but then seeing more Pixie Sticks being launched through the air from one section to another and I can't even imagine how they ever sleep. I bet dentists everywhere rejoice; job security fo' sho'.

My Mommeeee came out for a visit and the weather cooperated so we got to run some errands with blue skies and puffy clouds. September is a favorite of hers. I always wish they could stay longer, but she had good traveling weather and made it back home safe. Thanks for all our treats and Wendy's and your company!

Dada and I putzed our way through the Black Swamp Arts Fest (which we call Dark Arts) both on Saturday and Sunday, perusing all the wares, meeting up with friends, making some fun purchases. Tons of fair food, fun live music, and a Main Street full of vendors, we give it two thumbs up! PLUS, there was a book sale at the library so guess who got more books even though she's already at least 6 books behind her reading goal for 2025... yay! New friends!

Labor Day weekend brought yard work, much to the chagrin of the boys, including chopping off tree limbs and burning them, pulling many weeds and yanking out small honeysuckle bushes. Also got as many small saplings of our zillions of trees out as I could, and gingerly removed dead black raspberry canes. Miraculously, I stayed out of the poison ivy! Soon enough we will be raking leaves or mulching them into the grass, I suppose, but for now we are enjoying the cool mornings and warm afternoons. Especially at recess! Any chance to play outside is a chance I'll take!

My PET scan showed nothing, which is a good thing! My EKG also must have been normal because I didn't hear otherwise. Next month I'll have another oncology check up, and later this week is my 8 week post-op visit from my hysterectomy. I'm fairly certain she will sign me off. 

My two new meds seem to be doing their thing and only causing dried out eyes and nasal membranes. I hope the week off each month from one of them (planned, so that my lowered blood cell counts can recover. You know, important things like platelets) will bring some relief- I'm a little nervous going into the cold season with all the drying effects of furnaces on top of the side effects. I don't want to have to switch meds. One of these I'll be on for forever and the other is a 3 year gig. I'm almost 2/36ths done! Woohoo! I'll let you math nerds reduce that. 

Already had my first back-to-school germs, so I can check that off my list. I had a head cold before the kids even started back. Definitely must be allergic to school. Hehe!

Enjoy the beautiful autumn weather even if it hasn't officially started yet. I refuse to break out my cold weather clothes until the calendar declares it, so I'll be over here in my sundresses with sweaters and leggings. 

Engine, engine #9...

Now that'll be in everybody's head:

Engine, engine number nine, going down Chicago line. If the train should jump the track, do I get my money back? Yes, no, maybe so, maybe 40 years ago! 

I KNOW Lisa just read that with the claps in the right places. 

I've been dealing with a sinus thing lately. Not a bad one, but the kind where even when your head feels okay, when you blow your nose your tissue then indicates that things are NOT okay. Also, when you bend over to retrieve anything from below knee level it feels like perhaps your head would like to take a field trip to a bowling alley to just roll away down the lane. 

So I was a bit concerned yesterday when I had my blood draw sent to the lab and was preparing to ask for at least a bag of fluids if my numbers were too low to proceed with chemo #9 (and there's the tie in to the title). To my great delight, my nurse said, "You're good to go for chemo- your white blood cells are back up, almost twice what they were last time! They're at 5 today and they were 2.6 last week!" 

Wahoooooooo! Thanks to any of you who have been praying over that. I was fully prepared to get things pushed back despite desperately not wanting that to happen. Yay!

My weight was down a tad from where it had been two weeks ago when I weighed in at my heaviest. That was a little alarming because my doc had told me at the beginning, "I really don't want you over X" and I thought with a scoff, "no problem. I will never weigh X" and then that weigh in two weeks ago was a single pound under X! Yikes! Granted, I did forget to factor in that this is winter so the clothes I'm being weighed in are also heavier than when I'm not wearing anything on my scale at home! 😅 I ALWAYS forget that!

In addition to the wall paper paste I'm blowing out of my schnoz, there's plenty of small blood clots as my membranes are pretty dried out by the combination of heated indoor winter air and the drying effects of chemo. My throat is dry even despite drinking 64+ ounces of water most days and I'm going through more eye drops than usual, as well. I know it's just a season, but I'll be glad when the ickiness is over. I'm ready to air out the house big time and I miss outdoor recess! 

Being inside with small germ factories children is taking a toll on everybody. Our teachers are sick or their kids are sick, and the subs are sick or our kids are sick. We need a 2319 like in Monsters, Inc or, better yet, decontamination spaces like in the movies so everyone who enters or exits school is cleared. Maybe someday. And then I'll probably wish I'd kept my mouth shut. WHOOOOOOOOSH!

No personal doc visit yesterday. I think the next one is at the end of the month, for my final visit. Only 3 chemos to go! Please keep praying that I stay healthy enough. I need to get this over with. I love seeing my nurses, but I'd like to see them OUTSIDE of a clinical setting, haha!

I'm still kickin'

 Hiya and happy almost holidays! The title is something my Nana used to say when asked how she was doing. I felt it was fitting to sum up how I'm functioning these days.

For those of you who are panicking because you're not ready, take a deep breath and know that we are right there with you. For those of you who keep getting more things tossed at you in this game called life, take another breath and be still a moment. You're allowed. There is hard stuff happening, and you, too, are not alone. For those of you experiencing a very Blue Christmas, big hugs from us, and more deep breaths, and just do what you can. And if you can't, that is okay, too. Just be. Just breathe. Please know you're loved.

I had the last of the AC part of chemo on Tuesday last week and you guys must have been praying hard, because I was expecting next-door-to-end-of-the-world awfulness but experienced next-door-to-exhaustion instead. Thank you! The nausea has not been fun, but it has been manageable, and I'm still taking as many naps as possible, which helps. The brain fog is real; I've caught myself making out multiple Christmas cards to the same person, so if you end up with three or end up with none- it's my fault either way. Sorry. Next year will be better. Doing a lot of facepalming over here. But, as my Nana said, "I'm doin'."

The next step will be weekly infusions of Taxol for all of the next three months. Supposedly that will be easier on my system and my doc thinks I will handle that well. The new wrinkle will be hands and feet neuropathy, which I'm a bit nervous about as I've been fortunate to never have to deal with that yet... guess we'll see how it goes. Doc said if it's terrible they can dial back the dose of Taxol, but I want this round of cancer to be the last ever round of cancer so I kinda don't want to inhibit any of the meds... no sense stressing over it. It'll be what it'll be. We will figure it out. 

Since that doesn't start until January, I have the rest of this month to recover, gain weight I mean "enjoy Christmas goodies", attempt to finish my cards before Christmas, get my far and wide ranging ducks back in a row, take the boys to the dentist for their appointment, enjoy time with loved ones, hopefully bake some and take more naps. I am very much enjoying not waiting at the bus stop while the temps are in the teens, but I'm sure there will be plenty of that in 2025. 

Don't exhaust yourselves this season chasing down the Stuff or trying to do All The Things. Make the time for the people and activities that fill your spirit back up, and know that you're loved more than you realize. Be good to yourself! You are worth it!

Drink water and wash your hands. The germs are legion!

Kid goin' places

Thing Three kicked off his first week of high school still recovering from some rotten virus that has him coughing and hacking like he's trying to rid himself of his lungs. Whilst talking with our pediatrician's admin I asked if bronchitis was going around. She sighed, chuckled ruefully and replied, "All. The. Things. are going around. We even had pneumonia cases in the hospital this weekend." 

Fabulous.

So he is the masked and hooded crusader to kick off freshman year, I guess. It was around 50 degrees at the bus stop at 7 AM and I may need to remind Mother Nature that it is still AUGUST. Ahem.

I object.

Could we please borrow about three degrees from Texas for another month or so?

Happy trails to everyone beginning a new school year!

 

Sit-rep

 Not much to report as we're in various stages of "my throat is getting scratchy" and "I can't breathe out of the right side of my head" and "I didn't sleep well last night." Germs are making their rounds, again, and I'm slated to be in preschool next week so I'm trying to get everyone healthy here before bringing home fresh, new germs. Dada's been in town, which is always nice, and the sun is attempting to shine more brightly, which is definitely welcome. It's not supposed to be above freezing here at night for at least the next week, so we'll take our wins where we can get them. I can't WAIT to rescue my sundresses from winter storage, but I know we have a ways to go yet. Some of us are counting down the days until spring break, which don't align this year, so I'll be up early every morning anyway. It's all good. Thankful for heat and sunshine and spring flowers and hot, running water and friends who send funny texts and that we have lots of boxes of tissues. And for cheese. 

Puddin'head

 I wanted to find a fun font that resembles Liam's handwriting for this post since it's his funny quote, but apparently people don't make fonts called Illegible Scrawl or Chickenscratch. 

Pity. I could use it for half our family.

Anyway, it's a good thing that I personally scribbled this one down on the backside of an envelope at some point or it'd have been lost forever. I don't even remember how long ago he said it. We seem to have been discussing which dishes we'd need for dinner. 

Me: Go get some of the little tiny pudding dishes and-

Liam: There are no little tiny pudding dishes. You get a little tiny dish or a pudding dish.

My mind went two places as I typed that. 

First to the quote in A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. Some of you have heard of Game of Thrones, yes? GoT is part of this series. There's lots of books and he's not done yet and he better not die before he finishes it, but that's another story. Circling back. I forget which book it's in and I'm too lazy to check, but there's a quote along the lines of "there are old sellswords and bold sellswords but there are no old, bold sellswords." I'm sure you can think of similar as there is nothing new under the sun and someone somewhere has probably already said a version of it. No tiny little pudding dish. Got it.

Secondly, I think Liam's right. I'm remembering summers at camp, specifically '94, when I must have eaten my weight in pudding during those 8 weeks. It never seemed to be enough. I had help! I didn't eat it all by myself; I vividly remember devouring it with my friends Kevin and Dan. You know how you have memories you wish you could revisit? That would be one of mine. One of my many, actually.

Now you've learned your lesson for today. One doesn't use little tiny dishes for pudding. Add some pudding (or whatever your favorite treat is) to your ongoing, neverending list and think of me when you get a minute to take care of yourself this holiday season. And please do take good care of yourself. Rumor has it kids are dropping like flies at the middle school thanks to the germs flyin' around. Get your rest and wash those hands! Bleah!

A snapshot of self-sequestering

While chomping on a hot dog and working on metric system conversions, Thing Three is singing, “I farted, it tickled, my butt cheeks jiggled, so I did it again...” 

Sorry, Mom. This is my reality. 

Also, yes, that is a recorder beside the laptop. The school sent them home. Welcome to the eleventh circle of hell.

“What are you doing? Don’t take my picture. Why is my door open? It isn’t noon.”

Yes, my day is clear. For now until the foreseeable future. Just like many others who are trying to stay home and out of trouble...

My dishes are done! For a hot minute, anyway. So is my load of whites- washed, dried, folded, and put away!

Thing Two was banished from the device to the Legos so his eyeballs could have a break. This is one thing he never complains about being sent to. Getting him to leave the Lego table to go back to work is a different story.

And Dada with his bottles, computers, and microscope has taken over the Grandparent Suite, requiring the removal of some furniture and the installation of some other pieces. Desperate times, right?

The dogs, who are outside while it's not raining, are a bit bemused by all of us being home all the time, but I think they're secretly enjoying it. 

I'll leave you with this beloved little nugget:

Wash your hands and say your prayers, 

cuz Jesus and germs are everywhere. 

Stay safe, everyone! As my Uncle Gary often says, 

"good decisions, wise choices."

Health, one year later, and assorted teasers

*photos, so viewer discretion advised if needed*

I promise I am not this color in real life, haha; dunno what is with looking like this! So this is what my skin looks like 4 months post-radiation. I'm trying to remember to lotion it daily. There is still a patch on the back of my shoulder of darker skin as well, but I couldn't get a good shot of it in the mirror with my phone. 

Overall, I'm feeling really good, for those of you who are keeping tabs on me. I'm on the other end of allergies/sinus/cold; around Easter weekend I felt like I'd walked into a sliding glass door. All that pressure and underwater gunkage feeling like your head is a bowling ball and you don't dare lean over to tie your shoes for fear you won't be able to right yourself again. Then it headed down and I started coughing. Soon I sounded worse than I felt for a few days and now I'm rarely coughing. Yay!

My hair is back, another yay! People keep asking if I'm going to grow it out again or keep it short. Time will tell. My friend who trimmed and tidied it told me it takes awhile for the top of your head to catch up to everywhere else. She said once my duck fuzz turns back into real hair it'll cooperate a little better, haha, and that I was to wait eight weeks before seeing her again or I'd feel like I was making no progress at all. My mom said, "your hair has always been attractive but now it is CUTE!" Thanks, Mom =)

Friday was my one year anniversary since the official "yes, you have breast cancer" diagnosis. I want to take a minute to thank everybody who sent anything physically like mail or blankets or cookies. Thanks for carving out time to run that errand. Every single one was appreciated. And not one less iota of thanks to those of you who prayed for me and sent me good juju throughout this year. I seriously would not be in the good shape (round is a shape!) I'm in if you hadn't invested in me. Thank you for checking in, for letting me know you were keeping track of the blog, for the facebook encouragement, all of it. Thank you, Tribe!

And now another minute to remind everyone to not put off those doctors' appointments. That goes for you, too, men; I'm not only preaching to the ladies here. There are trained professionals who want to help you be your best you! Fixing problems when they're small or early can save you tons of time and money and aggravation and heartache later on. AND LET PEOPLE HELP. For goodness sake, you are a human being, not a burden, so stop suffering in silence and ask for what you need! Be specific. You matter!

Last Thursday, just before my one year anniversary, I had my last infusion of Herceptin and Perjeta. Hooray! My blood counts looked good (WBC 3.96, HGB 12.3, PLT 123- that was for my nurse friends) though white blood cells were down a little bit because of my germs. My fabulous nurses hugged me and made me cry, of course. I'll be back in six weeks to check to see how the new oral meds that I start in three weeks are working. I have the best nurses. *beam*

And life just keeps going on!  The house is an absolute wreck as we were busy doing projects all weekend. You know, little things like planting seeds in the garden, sunny patch out back  who am I kidding, the swamp that is supposed to be a garden. And huge things like the big kids passing their fight test to become certified second degree black belts, wahoo! Toss in church, a hike through the closest woods with Bosley the mud-dog, Carrie having a friend sleep over, actual sunshine to play catch outside in, and apparently a lot of snacks judging by the wrappers and crumbs strewn everywhere. Shake, add more mud, and you pretty much have it. Grandmama helped a ton last week but it already looks like there has been no parental supervision for a week. 

Some idiot (I blame Delores) took too many pictures during the fight test (and the other two tests, as usual) so once I'm done sifting through my own mess I'll get those posted. 

For anyone interested, graduation will be Saturday, May 11, so let us know if you'd like to come see the big kids get their new belts! Liam and Damon have decided they do not wish to continue training right now (here's where you feel free to channel Iago from Disney's Aladdin, "this is me about to die from NOT SURPRISE!") but Carrie really, really wants the sword that comes with your official third degree black belt and since she's working there anyway she might as well keep training. If you need a butt kicked, she's your girl. Haha!

And for all of you, May is right around the blessed corner. I know. Moms everywhere just burst into tears. Remember, May is only one month. School is almost done. Before you know it, all those projects and papers and presentations and book reviews and wax museum days and spring sports and field trips and school lunches will be things of memory. Breathe. You've got this.

And then they will be home all day, but that's another post altogether.

What a difference 24 hours makes

Yes, that would be Damon in the kennel with Bosley. Some of you are having flashbacks to when Carrie and Liam would do that with Triskal (Carrie did it once with scissors) but Bos has a significantly smaller crate. 

Twenty-four hours later, after hearing a dreaded sound that no parent wants to hear, especially early in the morning, led to a much different picture:

Poor kiddo. Who knows which particular germ he picked up, but we're thankful it was short-lived. After his initial bout of hurkage, he had no reoccurrences and only a slight fever. The next day he still didn't look himself upon waking, so he stayed home again to make sure he'd licked it. Halfway through the afternoon I realized he was completely his 100% ornery self again. His bum went on the bus this morning posthaste. He's probably glad to be back among friends instead of with his boring old mum anyway.

God bless teachers, every one. 

A Big Chair, A Boy, and His Bucket. And karate graduation.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then the ones portrayed here are:

We now join the ranks of those who have gone before us, those who also have cleaner bathrooms thanks to the aftermath of the stomach bug...

*********************************************************************

Thankfully it seemed to be a one-time occurrence. I kept him home Friday because he felt a bit warm upon awakening, but by lunch time he was his normal self and asking for his regular favorite foods. 

We made it to karate graduation on Saturday where he was awarded the brown belt that he'd earned, wahoo! We now get to go to one class for all the kids and can get all of our classes accomplished in two or three days instead of three to four. Yippie! That clomping you hear would be me attempting an Irish jig.

I apologize for the cruddy pictures. The stage lights overpowered anything my phone could do...

That's Liam on the right, escaping from Elizabeth's bear hug from behind.

The white blob is Damon, mid kick. I have a video of the whole kata but can't figure out the tech difficulties of getting it from my phone to the blog. It lets me post pictures but not videos from my phone. What's up with that?

Carrie and the sticks from weapons class. Again, I have video of the combinations, but apparently it's just for me. *sigh*

Sunday we all made it to church for the first time in what seemed like forever as Dada had been in North Carolina for work during the two previous Sundays. I got to snuggle a sweet, sleeping baby girl and then enjoyed the sunshine while pruning our apple trees a little more. 

Everyone made it to school and work today, so I've been brushing and trimming Triskal and may or may not snip some more off the trees out back. 

Valentines for the boys' class parties tomorrow are already finished, the snacks have been sent in as well, and we mailed the ones we planned to mail. Have a terrific Valentine's week, everyone, and stay away from the germs!

Whew, I gotta sit down

Yes, I know. There are no Thanksgiving pictures or stories up yet. Neither are there the same for the work holiday party. Tis the season to not blog, apparently.

Tis the season to chase groundhog sized squirrels out of the suet we get for our birdies. I've already chased them out of there several times and decided it was time to put the dog out to go potty and help deter the fatties. I felt bad when I heard a mad scrabbling under the grill cover and some tiny, cinnamon colored birds took off. Sorry, guys. The friendly beast won't even notice you, so eat all you want. And peck the squirrels as you please!

Tis the season for getting every school test in before the Christmas break. Liam has a book talk on Flush by Carl Hiaasen and a math test today. Carrie has a math test today, as well. Damon? Well, Damon's job today is to bring home all his lost and found in addition to bringing home everything he wore TO school today. He's missing one glove (because I found the other one in the lost and found at school yesterday) and one hat (which he wore yesterday). He came home without his mittens yesterday afternoon and Liam found them in the driveway when he went out to fetch the mail. The kid is a PigPen of belongings these days...

Tis the season to finally box up the warm weather clothes. Three weeks ago I was hanging out laundry while wearing my tank top. I prefer that. This Arctic Blast stuff is, one again, less than desirable.

Tis the season to bring out all the remaining Christmas decorations that haven't been up since Christmas in July. Don't judge. It finally happened. I was so far behind that I came out ahead. It can be done, people!

Tis the season to bake. Or, I would, if I could find my kitchen. The table (and floor) are strewn with math practice papers, Christmas decorations, cookbooks, gum wrappers, receipts waiting to be entered, and a stray nail polish bottle. Not to mention the remains of a tortilla Carrie started munching on several days ago. And Liam's dessert wrapper from last night. And Liam's breakfast dishes. And, lo and behold, my unfinished mug of coffee!

Don't get me started on the contents of the kitchen sink or the kitchen counter. Let's just say there's crock pot innards involved. Maybe I will go ahead and bake and clean up the mess all at once...

Home group is tonight, so I've already tidied the Old Lady Room which included vacuuming up popcorn of which I did not participate in the partaking. Hmmm. There are also colorful throws and pillows on the couch, awaiting our guests. There is a red fleece with snowflakes festooning it somewhere in this house, or maybe the playhouse, that I can not find to save my life. Don't feel sorry for me- we have others in spades- I feel a bit embarrassed to be searching for one when we have a ridiculous amount of others. 

Feeling a little convicted here, so I may or may not come back to that later, but we'll move on for now.

I am not cleaning this kitchen table by myself, so I'll move on there, too. 

Still no squirrels. Triskal can stay out a few more minutes.

Thanks to PaPa and Grandmama for cleaning out their attic and bestowing excess Christmas decorations on us. In one of the boxes I discovered, to my great delight, a set of the NOEL elves which never spell out NOEL in our family. My grandparents had a set that somehow ended up spelling everything possible but NOEL when we visited. When we called them to let them know we'd made it home safe, someone would mention in a faux-perplexed voice, "I don't understand how those crazy elves are spelling LEON. I know when I put them out they said NOEL..."

I put mine up as high as I could, spelling LEON, with a random plastic elf I found tucked arm-in-arm with the N elf. Our elves on the shelf are better than yours.

Tis the season for heat, thankfully, and that is another blog post not done yet. Yoiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. We've been cozy inside while it's been in the 20's outside. Thank you, Lord, for holding off on the horrid chilliness while we were dependent on only our fireplace. The 70 degree days were definitely a gift, and I'd take them any day of the week. Any week. 

Tis the season for Christmas music. Dada has created a Pentatonix holiday station on Pandora and he enjoys it, loudly, as often as he's home. I'm warming up to all the Christmas everythings, but continue to play non-holiday music when it's my turn to choose. I won't tell what's blasting right now while I'm cleaning (and taking a break from cleaning)... but it rhymes with Fit Pull. Don't judge. It's excellent cleaning music. "Fiiiiiiiiiirebaaaaaall!"

Tis the season for germs. Damon has had a cough for about 6 weeks and only now has a full-blown cold. Judging by his holiday zest, it isn't slowing him down much, but his poor little nose is red like Rudolph and we're going through tissues like nobody's business. I'm choosing to be thankful that he's using the tissues instead of his arms and sleeves. Upon entering the elementary school office yesterday, I heard the secretary mention they'd sent nine kids home with fevers before lunch the day before. Wash those hands.

Tis time to get back to work. Have a wonderful weekend! Be safe if you are anywhere that it's supposed to storm and that white scourge comes down from the sky. Stay warm!

Da da dadaDA... 3000!

Wow, you guys, this is my 3000th post, and I don't even have anything that exciting to say! =/ Bummer!

We've been in the wake-up, get-up, go to school, do homework and dinner and get in the car for karate, come home and go to bed routine that is typical of autumn. Throw in church and friends and home group starting back up and gorgeous weather and an overgrown garden and germs, and you pretty much have our life.

Last weekend, Pap showed up on his birthday to hang out with Dada as I piled all the kids in the car and trekked to PA for one of our infamous Whirlwind Weekends. We collapsed at Grandmama and PaPa's house Friday night. Carrie came with me to a funeral Saturday morning, then we headed to a friend's daughter's third birthday party in the afternoon and then went from there straight towards to Pittsburgh to meet with my BFF and her girls for munchies. Sunday brought a trip to my Nana's hometown where Carrie and I visited her in the hospital while Aunt Lainie watched the boys at Nana's apartment. We all piled back into the car, headed home after lunch, and Damon announced he had a huge headache. Sent him to bed only to have him miss the next two days of school with a fever and sore throat. Dr. Jon declared him strep-free, so it was back to school on Wednesday for him, much to his delight.

Now Liam has gone to bed with a bad headache and he feels warm to me. =/ They say that history repeats itself...

Dada and Carrie were mowing while I did laundry and dishes. Damon played on the iPad to keep him quiet while Liam slept. Now I need to go fold said laundry and get ready for this week. Have a good one, everybodeeeee!