cooped up and up late

Since I last wrote, a heat wave passed through and turned our driveway/front yard into an ice rink, like it was when we moved in last March.

We've had more mamavan adventures... During the deep-freeze week of 20's below, I got stuck three times - twice driving off the sides of driveways, and once backing into a snowbank. After the big thaw, there was a backwards slide-to-the-trees/forward slip-to-the-ditch maneuver after I attempted to park in the driveway. I waver between humble gratitude for the man who keeps saving me and eye-rolling annoyance that preventive steps weren't taken. No wonder so many Wasilla people drive monster trucks.

Thank goodness we're now back to normal January temperatures. The car smells better when it's below freezing.

Now we're coming to the end of a week of sick children. It was the return of the Barfovirus. R was first, then I think two days went by uneventfully before BossLady and T were heaving. They both missed school the past two days. So that brings their grand total of days attended in January to NINE - thanks to 3 holiday-days, 2 weather-cancellation days, 1 inservice day, and 2 barfing days. K's still not on a daily flying schedule, so we all feel like we've been stumbling over each other and the dog for two long months.

Speaking of the dog, he hasn't run away since his 20-below overnight expedition. The woman who brought him to her house that night said he had icicles on his coat and was almost run over a few times. We now know how fast Craigslist ads work - and we also don't take his collar off anymore!

I had my echo done, the pressure has gone down into the 40's. (happy dance!)
I won't officially get the results from my doctor until February 18th, though, because the black-ice, school-cancellation day was also the day I was supposed to drive into Anchorage to talk to her. I also had another bone density scan done, but those techs don't give hints about results... Overall I seem to be doing MUCH better and I'm thankful for it.

a trim and a skate

Today was a "Professional Development" day for the teachers in this district, the first of two long weekends this month for the kids. So we had a lazy morning, then talked Little Dude into getting a haircut at Auntie Brenna's... toned down the Animal look.

We also went ice-skating with Brenna, Wyatt and Wilson on a pond down the street from their house. R got used to hockey skates after about 10 minutes and a few tears, BossLady can glide without doing the ChopChopWobbleFall, and Wyatt really liked being pulled in the sled. It was a good day.


Quyaana to Brenna, you're so good to us!

homesick!

It's so peaceful here right now. I think I stay up ridiculously late just because it's peaceful after 9:30pm and I'm a hoarder of quiet, solitary moments.

K's on a schedule this month that's been taking him to Nome & Kotzebue from about 7pm to 3am. I'm kind of jealous... I haven't been up there in almost four years, and I miss that feeling of a place that's a part of me. The kind of place with streets and houses and shortcuts and skylines you've memorized, people who remember you and everything you ever did there, places where your kids played, all that. I'm sure K doesn't feel the pull of Nome in the same way, but it's got to be fun flying that old familiar approach and seeing the city lights, Anvil Mountain, the old softball fields...

T is bound and determined to move back to Laramie at the first opportunity. She told me she wants to buy our old house back, go to college at UW, and get some horses. I guess she feels the same way about Laramie as I feel about Nome.

Tomorrow, I'll have another echocardiogram done. In October the pulmonary arterial pressure was 54, which is almost unchanged from the October 2007 result. Next week I go in for a bone density scan to see how decrepit my bones are, then I'll get to talk to the doctors the same day. I'm hoping for some new strategy on getting that pressure down, and also a prescription for Reclast instead of Fosamax. Chemical Mama.

out with the old...

In with the new! I made a few changes... the "Heard at my house" column was too long so I archived it in the previous post. The old slideshow can be found on this page . I considered changing the entire look of this blog but really, I'm too lazy for that. I need the time to finish that neverending baby blanket.

2008 Heard at my house

"Daddy, why are toots funny?"

"Don't bite the table. DON'T!!"

"That's not a ball, that's a potato."

"What if every car on earth was a hybrid?"

"What if candy was just as healthy for us as vegetables?"

"I wish we had xray vision."

"So, when can we buy a horse?"

(grinning)"Me, eat, boogeh, Mama"

(R, in the car) "UG BUG!! UG BUG!!"

(sister to brother) "EYEBALL! STOP BITING THE COUCH!"

"HEY! Get your head out of the dryer!"