Home Remedies...

Heather has spent the past 3 days rehearsing with the WVU Honor Orchestra. She had an 8 hour rehearsal yesterday instead of going to school. Before bed she kept running into our room to tell us all the fun things that had happened during the day.

We thought she'd finally gone to bed when she came running in one last time very excited. "I forgot to tell you one of the best parts," she exclaimed, jumping up and down. She lifted up her chin and pointed to a red spot on her neck.

"I have my first violin hickey!" she squealed, barely able to contain herself. I guess she's waited her whole life for one of those. When someone has a violin hickey, it's the true sign of a dedicated musician.

"Wow," we replied, unsure of how we were supposed to react.

She then proceeded to tell us that one of the cello players had told her not to try to cover it up with make-up because it would just make it look worse. It had been recommended that she put a spoon in the freezer and then put the frozen spoon against it to help it look less noticeable.

Well, I can see how her violin hickey would be less noticeable with a FROZEN SPOON stuck to her neck instead....

So, I'm documenting my daughter's first violin hickey. I'm so proud.

Guilt trip

Last night I'd just gotten off the phone with my husband. He'd made it safely to D.C. and I was heading to bed when I heard someone in the kitchen. It was Anna. "What are you doing?" I asked her---it was 11pm on a school night---she was supposed to have been in bed asleep at 9:30.

"I'm hungry," she insisted, and before I could banish her from the kitchen she added, "and besides, you didn't fix us any dinner tonight."

WHAT? Just for the record I threw a pizza on the table at 6pm. And that does count as dinner. Granted, it wasn't the "sit down together as a family dinner" we have every other night. It was still food. On the table. Dinner.

And furthermore, what were the reasons I didn't have time to make dinner yesterday? Let's think. Anna got home from school at 3:00, we got in the car and went to her eye appointment. We walked into the office and every chair was taken and people were standing to wait. Not a good sign. After 30 minutes, no one had come out of the office or had been called back---a bad sign. I went up to the desk and asked if both doctors were in. I know how it works. I was going to have to wait until at least half of all the people in the office had been seen before it would ever be Anna's turn.

It went from bad to worse when the secretary told me that one of the doctors had left the practice and so only one doctor was seeing ALL these people. UH-OH. And she said it like I was supposed to feel sorry for the doctor. Yeah, right. I asked her how long it would be. I figure if I make an appointment, I don't mind waiting 15-20 minutes. "Oh it's going to be a while, honey," she proceeded to tell me. No kidding. As politely as I could, I asked her to reschedule me. I didn't have an hour and a half to wait...so on my to-do-list today: find new eye doctor.

By now it's 4:00, Anna and I drive straight over to the doctor to get her physical for track. More fun and more waiting. But this time we didn't have an appointment so I was okay to wait. We were there until 6pm. Hence, pizza for dinner because Brian had to leave for D.C. at 6:30pm.

So, back to Anna. It's 11pm and she's hungry. As she should be, I guess she had a busy day and her mother didn't make her a home cooked meal. Poor thing, my heart bleeds for her. "GET TO BED!" I told her. All my patience was long gone...

All jokes aside

When the kids were sick they didn't want to eat anything. Okay, when Heather was sick she didn't want to eat anything. The only thing I could tempt her with was the Popsicles--and only then, because of the jokes on the sticks. Putting jokes on Popsicle sticks was a stroke of pure genius! First, you wouldn't think you'd ever need a reason to make a kid eat a Popsicle, so why bother, right? But here I was: desperate for Heather to hydrate and luckily for me the joke did the trick!

I didn't expect the jokes to be funny or anything. In fact they were pretty lame (What did the hamburger couple name their daughter?) And it would have been fine except, THEY USED THE SAME THREE LAME JOKES FOR THE WHOLE BOX! That was pretty annoying. How hard would it be to put a different corny joke on each Popsicle stick? Here I am with a sick kid. The only joy in her life is from reading the joke and it's the same ones over and over again. Pathetic.

I wanted to call the number on the side of the box and complain, but then I realized how pathetic I would sound. "Uh, your jokes are lame and they are all the same. And your mama can't dance." I know, pathetic. So, Heather stopped eating the Popsicles, but at least she got better.

So, just to warn you. If you are thinking about buying Popsicles solely for the jokes on the stick. Think again. NOT WORTH IT. It was a good idea, if they only had a few more jokes...

A nice surprise

Since we were all flying to Utah this summer, I figured I wouldn't get to go on my annual trip to visit my sister Julie. Don't get me wrong, I love to go to Utah to see my family and friends but taking the kids with me, means it isn't much of a "vacation." Not that I need one---I mean my life is pretty good, I don't really need a vacation from my life, it's just nice to get away every now and again. It gives the kids a chance to appreciate me a little more and makes me miss them and want to cook and clean for them again---it's a win-win situation.

So, I was surprised when my husband asked me what dates I wanted to go to Switzerland. Hummm, can I leave tomorrow? Probably not. I leave at the end of March for two weeks. I CAN'T WAIT!

Not that I'm going to do any site seeing. I've visited her enough times that we've done all the tourist stuff. This is all about the stuff I love most. Staying up all night watching a years worth of movies (we love the romantic comedies), eating great food, seeing all the neat tricks her kids have learned in the past year, and cleaning Julie's house. I know it sounds strange. But I love to clean other people's houses. It's hard to throw out my own stuff, I never know if I might need it or not. It's so much easier when it's not mine...

And maybe when I get back, my family will have missed me or at least noticed I was gone:)

Doctor: friend or foe

There's something about doctors. I don't know what it is. I can go into a regular check-up feeling fine, but by the time I leave I feel like I'm on my death bed or something.

"Everything okay?" He asks me. I like my doctor. He's awesome.
"Yep," I tell him. "Just the usual."
"Usual?" he probes.
"You know, the normal forgetfulness." I tell him. I figure everyone forgets things. This is perfectly normal for me and I've learned that if I don't write things down, they cease to exist...

"What do you forget?" he wants to know.
"Um, how old I am, the year I graduated from high school, regular stuff like that." I tell him. In fact, just this past Saturday someone asked me what year I graduated from high school. I couldn't remember!!! I guessed 1998. They were like: "so you had your first child when you were nine?" Oops, wrong year....

So I did learn something today. I guess it isn't normal to forget your age, go figure!

I was ready! I packed extra socks and pants for everyone in case theirs got wet when were skiing and they wanted to change into something dry. I packed food and snacks and extra food and extra snacks. I packed spare hats, scarves, and gloves since someone always seems to lose these small items at some point during a day of skiing. I packed Kleenex, chapstick, sunglasses, goggles, packets of hand warmers and everything I could think of. I had a trunk load of stuff as we left for the 2 hour drive for the slopes. I was sure that I had everything we would need.

It would have been funny had it not been 8 degrees outside with a negative 16 degree wind chill.

I looked in the gift shop lamenting I would have to spend at least $200 when I had a perfectly good winter coat at home...Luckily someone I knew passed by and asked if I was window shopping. I shrugged and embarrassed, I admitted that I had forgotten my coat and was going to have to buy another one. She told me that she had brought not just one, but two extra coats with her and insisted that I borrow one of them from her. I wished I could have laughed and said that I was kidding---that I really hadn't forgotten my coat. But sadly, it was the truth. She was gracious and got me the coats so I could chose which one I wanted to use.

I didn't even bother to mention to her all the extra things I had brought with me. Somehow it just didn't seem like it would make any difference. But at least I was warm, and I would like to say from this experience that I'll never forget my coat again, but you just never know.

Who you gonna call?

Nicholas has been home sick the past few days. With no television, I bought some new movies for him to watch. When I realized that my kids had never seen either of the Ghostbuster movies, I couldn't resist. Watching them with my teen aged son, I realized three things.

One. As we watched the movie I kept thinking to myself that I remembered it being better than it was...somehow funnier...It seemed lacking. I'm fairly certain that all the Ghostbuster references are due to the fact that people don't actually remember the movie itself.

That said, it leads me to my second thing. Two: Ghostbuster has some of the best lines in it--- EVER. A lot of them, my kids didn't appreciate or even find funny. But I did, and I laughed. These are the lines that everyone quotes and which makes the movie a quintessential 80's icon movie.

Three. There are movies that shouldn't be watched with parents and children. Ghostbusters is one of these movies. It was rated PG, so I didn't give it another thought when I put it in...yikes. I kept looking over at my son, thinking, "I don't remember that part. Gee, could she put on some more clothes? " And I actually had to tell him at one point to cover his eyes until I told him it was okay to look again. At least the TV Guardian got rid of all the bad language---which I didn't remember there being either.

I guess I need to add another thing. Four. When did I become such a prude? I know I can't shelter my kids forever, but I can try...Is that a bad thing?