Thanksgiving week….

…most of the week is over.  One more working day and then a good portion of Thursday will be flying.  I’m flying out of Des Moines, stopping over in Dallas and then finally landing in Phoenix.

The children have a half day tomorrow and their dad is picking them up after school and taking them home with him for the long weekend. I’m grateful that he’s also taking the little dog with them.  It’s also Grandparents Day at Alex’s school, so my mom will go partake in the festivities and Alex will get some grandma time.  Good for them both.  My mom will be watching the little cat, so all the bases are covered.

I want to say that I’m not at all apprehensive about how Phoenix will work out, but that would be a big ol’ lie, and I’m gonna be honest – pretty nervous.  Mick is such a good guy and I know he isn’t one of those people who’d pressure me into anything and deep down I know everything is gonna be fine – but that step off the plane, trying to locate him in the airport…..nerves!!!

 

Other than that, I just want to wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving! I hope the food is terrific and your family gatherings bring  you joy and love, only good things! I’m sending love to all of you.

Presenting…

On Thursday, I’ll be presenting to one of my old professor’s honors seminars.  Very similar to the one I took as an honors student, but slightly different.  I’m not sure if I’m ready.

I’ll have to give a good accounting of my own honors project, which isn’t a problem. I’ve reviewed my thesis. (And boy, that read was long! I’d forgotten just how long it was.)  I just get to go in, present my work, explain why I picked my topic (American Muslim Women Post 9/11), how I researched it, etc.  It won’t be bad and may be fun, though I am somewhat apprehensive about actually presenting.  So, that is the next big thing on the docket, presenting to Ralph’s honors seminar on Thursday morning.

On my birthday, ‘New Moon’ comes out, so I’m sure I’ll be taking the children to see that.  I’m looking forward to it, the sequel looks better than the first one to me.  I could be wrong.

The week after that is Thanksgiving week and Phoenix with Mick.   We’ve had some serious hiccups this week, because flights needed to be moved around, but right now, everything is looking golden.   Let’s just hope for no more flight changes, eh?

Cheese and nicknames….

So, this afternoon Mick and I were talking and it was pretty obvious that there is a certain amount of cheese in our relationship.  I like that he is cheesy, because it allows me to do it, too.   As my birthday falls relatively close to our trip, Mick wants to do something to celebrate it.  Initially, we talked about going out for a drink, dinner and then dessert, maybe dancing, and then we started talking about cheese and Mick wondered about doing something with cheese and wine.  So, if any of you have an idea about Phoenix and places that do that sort of thing, I’d appreciate knowing where we could go.

Nicknaming people is just something I do.  I rarely call anyone by their name, I’m not really sure why.  Everyone I know (and mostly, those that I like) is honey, sweetie, babe, dear.  The kids have a zillion nicknames and I confuse people when referring to them when we’re out.  Rian goes by Alex at school and I tend to use that and call out ‘Lex, Lexi, Xandra’…..whatever is handy.  Scott’s nickname is Buddha, so it shortens down to Bood or Boody, when he was younger, I called him by his second first name, which is Micheal, and he would get pissed off when anyone else called him by it.  Now, Rian and her little buddies use Buddha and he gets mad about that, but he can’t tell her friends no, because he isn’t that mean – he just tells her that it is Mom’s nickname for him.  Darren came with his own nickname that almost everyone uses for him, which is Mick.  I call him Mick, or honey,  or Darren William Nelson, or just plain D, sometimes ‘that dirty Irish Canuck’ or when I’m being very crude Big Dick Mick.  (And I’m getting so killed for adding that last one!!)

I’m not sure why I like nicknames so much, I just do.  My own name tends not to allow for a nickname and Mick just uses ‘darlin’ or ‘baby’ and sometimes he’ll call me a Yank, which cracks me up.    I mean, I am obviously an American, so it fits and I do live in one of the northern states, so I won’t pout.

We went and saw ‘The Vampire’s Assistant’ on Friday afternoon/evening.  I thought it was alright, a tiny bit gory, but nothing that my daughter hasn’t seen in episodes of Buffy.  Scott seemed a little upset at some of the book to movie changes.   It definitely seemed to me to be a movie for teenagers.  The language wasn’t bad and there was some good writing throughout, I did enjoy John C. Reilly as the (in my mind) very unlikely vampire.  Definitely an interesting take on the vampire mythos.

Tomorrow we’re going to head out to the corn maze at Bloomsbury Farm.  Need to find some pumpkins and get lost in the maze.  We’ll come home and carve a pumpkin or two.  Goodtimes.

Thanksgiving….

..is going to be in Phoenix.

Mick and I were initially set on Seattle, and then we looked at Las Vegas, but the flights kept going up as we were trying to book them.  The last time we tried Vegas, I was booking and the flight price went up $200.  We probably looked at 40 different locations around the States, trying to pin one down.  One that would be super for me would be terrible for him.  One great for him would be horrible for me.  Three times I was booking and the price went up significantly.  We picked a hotel in Vegas and it jumped $250 for Mick.

I mentioned looking at Phoenix and Mick goes, “This is the last one for tonight, I don’t want you throwing the laptop.”  Fortunately, it worked out great for both of us. We’re both booked and set.   It wasn’t my intention to be someplace warm and sunny over the holiday, but I can’t see how it’ll be a bad thing at all, especially given that I’ll have Mick’s company the whole time.  The children will be with their dad for the holiday.  The last bits to be set are the cat and the dog, but I think it can be done.

Just have to get there.

just sometimes…..

 

….I wish that there was someone I could talk about this with.

 

All of our mutual friends live near him, can be there for him.  And it’s gotten very, very hard.  I’m starting to question quite a lot.

It’s been a while….

Since I’ve posted anything at all.

Last Friday, Alex had an asthma attack and things have been a bit jumbled and messy since then.  She was admitted into the University’s Peds Intensive Care Unit on Saturday, moved down to the regular Peds floor on Sunday afternoon, tested for allergies on Monday morning and then she was released for home around noon on Monday.

We came home, got the new meds from our local pharmacy and on Tuesday morning, she woke up with a terrible bumpy rash, head to toe.   Went back to her local doctor and we pulled her off one of the antibiotics.  She’s never reacted badly to one before, but this one is tied to penicillin, which both of my parents are allergic to, though I am not.  Luckily, the rash is mostly gone now, except where she scratched quite a bit.

As you can imagine, neither of us got much sleep while she was actually in the hospital, though I think we are mostly caught up by now.  We’re just trying to get her albuterol needs under control and then she can go back to school.

The story is much more involved than I am putting here and more scary to me, which is perhaps why I am reluctant to say too much about it.   It’s just never a joyful thing to see your baby, even at 9 years old, in a hospital bed, with two ivs and an oxygen mask and five different things going into those ivs and looking so small and helpless.  

I’ve been blessed by my friends during this time, thank you, everyone.  You’ve really helped and I know your good thoughts and your prayers made a difference in her recovery. I love you all.

I also need to give a big shout out to my sweetheart, Mick.  He has done everything possible for him to do to get me through this, whilst retaining my sanity.   It continually bowls me over what sweet things that man is capable of and does.  Much love, babe.

Gym and the interwebs…..

I’ve been to the gym three times since Friday, taking the night off tonight, as the cable gentlemen installed our cable, interwebs and phone.

I wanted to catch a nap today, but it was not to be.  I may need to replace the tv and update the router, though we’ll see.

The children are thrilled for the cable bits, as you might imagine.  Therefore, I am putting up with ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua’ for their sakes, right now.  Starz on demand, you know.  No mas! No mas! No mas! Find your bark!  Si, that which makes you mighty!!  I’m just glad that my turn is next, aiyiyi.

In other news…

…yesterday, I joined a 24/7 fitness place about 10 minutes from my house.  I’m telling myself that sometimes at 10pm, I will want to go workout.  Uh huh. 

And next week, the cable guys will be bringing cable, internet and a landline to my place.  So, I might be moving into this century.  There was only so long that I could hold out.

I’m not a luddite, really.  Stop looking at me like that. 

Settling into fall….

Seriously, we don’t settle into fall at my place, we just kinda land into it and take off running.  I’m hoping that the “settle” part will come about within the next few weeks, as the schedule firms up.   Just when I think everything is down, then one of the kids drops something else in my lap.  At some point, I’d like to go back to my van pool, but until things get fixed, I am not sure when I’ll be back on it.  And that disturbs me, because I’m already tired of driving everyday.   But with drumline and dance classes and ‘oh, mom, we’re out of this, can you pick some up?’ it could be a lengthy process.

Add in that I’m working later four nights a week, so that I can pick up Rian early on Wednesday and get her to her dance classes on time, it makes that extra ten minutes I can be home with them in the morning more meaningful and harder to walk out that door.

This weekend, we saw ‘9′…..it was interesting, I guess.  I loved the concept and the film itself was well done, but it was so short.  Like 80 minutes kind of short.  That’s not really a film to me.  That’s a long episode of tv.  When we walked out of the theatre, Scott goes, ‘Mom, the sun is still up.’  I look at my phone and it was done in just under 80 minutes.

We ended up going to eat at Carlos O’Kelly’s, which was terrific. Imagine singing “The Sun’ll Come Out” and having your children interrupt you with “Manamana.”  HEEHEE.  Good times.  We split a fried ice cream, which had both honey and chocolate on it. Yum.

Re-watched ‘The Breakfast Club’, ‘G.I. Jane’ and ‘Annie’.  The kids hadn’t seen them, so they were all new for them – I think they liked TBC the best, they were cracking up quite a bit and I had to explain things that I was not ready to explain. *lol*  That’ll teach me to not remember everything.  Also, you know that kissing and cuddling in movies is just gross.

The Mick’s birthday is coming up and I would _love_ to talk about his presents here, but he reads this, so I won’t.  September 28th, folks.  Send him love, baked goods, just about anything, but definitely not your pocket lint.  That’s my job.

Really quick….

I’m sorry, I was busy today, no post from me for a couple of days!

Tomorrow is my daughter’s birthday and it will be one of major surprises for her.  She thinks that her grandma is bringing her treats to school – hahahah! We both are!   And then tomorrow night, she’ll get to go to dinner with her dad, which is not even on her radar – she doesn’t think she’ll get to see him on her birthday.

The new kitty, Goldie, is at home and she is doing well.  I’m pretty happy with her, she seems like a lovable little lump of purring goodness.  And the charming Mick has me considering Seattle at Thanksgiving.  Woot.   That is all for today, considering I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!