22 days

I can't believe it was 22 days that I last blogged. It seemed almost like therapy for me for a little while and as I'm prone to doing, I just stopped. But this time, I did not stop permanently, just a break.

It's funny how you think "wow I've been busy" then you think back and realize you were busy doing nothing. That's how I feel right now. 22 days? Boy, there must have been alot of stuff going on to make me take that long to get back on the saddle. But then I stopped to think....Ok. there's always laundry. Cooking, check. Cleaning, check. But really what else have I been doing? Well my van has been out of commission the whole time...first brakes, now something with the cooling system yet to be determined. Thank GOD for sending me such great friends or we'd be out a thousand bucks we don't have by now. It's in good hands, I'm sure we'll have an answer tomorrow.

So it's 3 days till Thanksgiving. I told myself I wanted to make a turkey this year. But I don't think it's going to happen. For one thing I don't have one. For another, I won't be home. Well, that's not entirely true. I will be home. I have to make my awesome broccoli casserole. And my lemon squares. Ok, neither recipe is really mine, but I tweak them a little so as to make them feel like mine. And maybe on Friday or Saturday (most likely Saturday) I'll drag myself out to the grocery and see if I can find a good deal on a turkey for the freezer. Maybe catch an after Thanksgiving turkey blow out! I love turkey. And I want to try one of those recipes I keep seeing on the food channel.

Today was interesting. It's Monday, H's first school break. And I was up at 6:30. Again, I can't catch a break in that department. But it's OK, I wanted an early start anyway. We had to get to Gainesville. We had to pick up our beloved van (the rest of that story later) and E had an appointment at Shands. She's OK, but when she was born, they took a little extra blood and tested it for a study. Turns out she has the gene that causes Diabetes. She's OK now, they test her blood every 3 months and that antibody hasn't been there, but she just has a higher risk of developing the disease. So she has been in the TEDDY study since she was a month old. I have to send them a sample of her poop every month and every once in a while they have me track her diet for 3 days. I'm glad we're in it. We wouldn't get her blood tested for this antibody unless something was wrong so it's worth the pain. Plus who else pays for poop?

So while we were in the lobby, the girls and hubby sat on a bench while I went to Opus for some coffee (for the hubby, he was so tired!) and when I came back, they all had Santa-style hats! The maintenance men were busily decorating a ginormous tree and the woman (yes woman) who was directing their ornament placement decided that we all needed hats. So she got me one too. So there we were, like we came straight from the North Pole, up to the research center.

As I said before I'm glad she's in the study if for nothing else than the potential diagnostic advantage it gives us, but I don't like the blood draw. E is at the age now that she really remembers 3 months ago. And she knows 3 months ago she got a shot. And it hurt. And she doesn't want to do it again. And I don't think holding down an elephant would be more difficult. How is it that someone who weighs 42 pounds has the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger? (and for those of you keeping score, E is 3, she now officially outweighs her 5 year old sister by one pound). But the study is also important in that maybe my kid's blood will help find a cure so no more kids have to go through life injecting insulin.

Back to the day. We had lunch with hubby's Sister, who works at Shand's, then left. Dear Hubby had decided to drive the van (since we had picked it up, told you I'd get to this part) with the kids and let me drive home in peace. Well we get almost out of Gainesville when the van started doing what it had been doing and we thought was fixed. So we had to turn around, go back across town and take it back. Thankfully one of our best friends is working on it so he was more than happy (at least he seemed so) to find out why his first fix wasn't helping.

Sadly, not all of the 22 days has been like this. Mostly they have been at home, especially since I haven't had my mom-van. So I have no excuse. And I promise that if you are faithfully reading, I will be more diligent in my writing.

A good weekend

And I think I deserved it.

Despite my hacking, I took the girls to their Grandmothers on Friday for Trick or Treating. They were adorable in their costumes. And they had a great time trick or treating. When we were ready to go home, we enticed them with the offer of a bath in Grandma's big bathtub. They were more than willing to accept that proposal :) And they were sleeping over!!! YAY FOR MOMMY AND DADDY! Of course, the upper respirtory infection and fever blister meant none of the usual stuff mommies and daddies do when their offspring are away, but it was nice to have a night to ourselves anyway.

Saturday, I took them to the 4th birthday party of their best friend. They had a great time and it was a perfect theme for little girls....princesses! It was really a great day. But boy, I tired quickly. Lucky for me, it was a slumber party!!! I left at 7:30 sans kids!!! Hubby had to work so he was already sleeping, but I was able to watch some of the TV I wanted to watch and play on the computer and chat with my buddy MV. It was a relaxing night. And I slept till almost 9am!!! I haven't slept that late in well like 5 years!!! Then it was off to pick them up and back to normalcy. Although we did get to con MA into letting us fire up the Guitar Hero for a while.