While life was running away with me during most of December and January, there were still blog-worthy things happening, just no chance to get them down. Let me mention a random few:
I fell down our stairs! Combine hardwood floors and a fast-moving Mom (and a coat of dust I’d betcha), and it’s not a pretty picture. I really hit hard on my right elbow and it was pretty sore and bruised, but no serious injuries. Thank gah because, yes, we’ve had enough ER, thank you. Totally all better now.
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Grant won his classroom’s spelling bee with the fun word somersault. That meant he would move on to represent his class in the whole school spelling bee. But wouldn’t you know, we had a snow day and school was cancelled the day of the spelling bee.
And then here’s the rest of the story….
The next week, there was a day Grant woke up with a red and, I am not kidding, yellow sore throat. Gary and I both thought it was one of the most awful throats we’d ever seen. I called the school office to report he was sick and would be missing school. Just a couple of minutes later, I got a phone call from his teacher asking me if I knew today was the day for the rescheduled spelling bee.
Nope, I didn’t.
Sidenote: You know, I’ve come to realize some things about my children and one of those is Grant isn’t the type to share much, other than, say, criticism on my driving speed and that there was an explosion on Pluto that took 170,000 years for the light to reach Earth and that his friend has memorized the first ten digits of pi and that he does not like our new house at all because of the rocks outside.
Summary: Grant’s Topics of Conversation
1) something mathematical
2) something scientific
3) something he does not approve of (like my prepositions at the end of my sentences?)
So, anywho, back to the teacher phone call... “No,” I said, “I didn’t know it was spelling bee day, but sorry, but he is sick and will have to miss. He has a doctor appointment this morning.”
Then she asked, and I quote,
if that whippersnapper might be trying to get out of the spelling bee?
Um, no. I don’t think he could fake a red and yellow throat.
Maybe she just knew he was going to be a shoe-in to clinch the all-school competition and give her classroom all the fame?? I don’t really know, but it was a little weird.
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Speaking of phone calls, I have gotten a recording-type phone call every single weekday for the past month or more saying, “This is an important message from AT&T regarding your wireless service. Please call….”
It’s a guy’s voice that is not your typical phone recording voice. 
Yes, he’s a a total cowboy! It’s a very masculine voice with some southern drawl to it. Far more appealing than a female robot voice, but nevertheless, I am getting tired of hearing him.
I’ve called into AT&T to see what is so important and they cannot find any reason why I am getting this automated call. They even added to my “folder” that I have called in and the message should be stopped. But even today, I still got the call. Yippie-ki-yay.
We still also get calls for Randy Vajones (“Vah-jones”) every once in awhile. Apparently, Randy (and sometimes he’s referred to as just Randy Jones, minus the Va ???) had our home number before we got it last June. So, I know when Randy’s due for a check up at the dentist and that his requested library books are in.
Like I need more to keep track of, people.
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Sam’s finally lost all his glue from the icy-driveway-cut above his eye. That stuff stayed on! Little Whippersnapper would only consent to us putting a wet washcloth on it to help with the glue, so we had to secretly take the scissors to it when his eye was covered with the washcloth and snip at it as we could. He’s got a red line scar right now and only a half of eyebrow. I guess the glue took the hair out with it?
He looks so tough. Yep, for sure, all 40.6 pounds of him.
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YES!! FINALLY!! Sam is 40 pounds!! Out of the baby car seat at age 6+ and now in the booster until he is…(swallowing hard) 80 pounds.
Oh, wow, he’s gonna be a sophomore in high school riding in a booster seat.
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Jack and Caroline are still Jack and Caroline. Mr. Social/Independent and Ms. Drama/Dress-up.
Jack tried out for and made Jazz Band again and I am just so happy that he loves to play music. He’s a kid that I don’t even have to mention practice. He just does it. And if you notice, like Ross did on our snowy day, he’s never in our pictures, because he is never home. The kid’s got a million friends, that’s for sure, and they’re either here or he’s there.
In fact, he just added a new buddy in his life. He signed up as part of a Wash U study (not for the cash I’m sure!) where he is paired to communicate with another boy his age with Type 1 diabetes. They have begun emailing and I suppose sometime he might be going to hang out with him, too.
And Ms. Caroline’s latest is that she wants every piece of furniture out of her tiny bedroom so she’ll have room for her full size brass bed she’s been missing since we moved here. At first she seemed to like the cozy feel of the twin bed, but now, no, I guess she’s missing that Princess feeling. We’re trying out having all her clothes in her closet before we actually get rid of the dresser. We’ve purged so much of her stuff just because she’s outgrown it that maybe now her wardrobe will actually be manageable. Get this: She’s down to like six pairs of shoes. Unreal.
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Hey, it looks like heating your house with wood is the way to go! Yes, you save on fuel costs big time, you get out to mingle with Mother Nature in all her forms, and, bonus, there’s that cardio workout with every wood-cutting, wood-stacking, wood-hauling day.
I think maybe it’s more Gary’s thing than mine.
Especially after yesterday when I was working my tail off (we hope literally) trying to guide a wheelbarrow full of wood through the snowy yard. It just was taking everything I had to get it to move a foot! I knew there was no way I could fill up the racks before dark at the rate I was going, so I called for Jack to come out and help.
He was very helpful when he watched me trying to push the wheelbarrow and informed me that the wheelbarrow wheels must be frozen because they weren’t actually rolling and I was pushing the load of wood over the yard.
Oh. Well, that helped to explain that.
Then he and I used sleds to bring the wood up and that actually worked out pretty well, just kinda slow and yes, there was that exhausting workout thing again.
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And the biggest happy news this month is that our well water is safe for drinking! Yippee! We had it tested in October and it tested positive for bacteria so we’ve spent the last few months having to bring in water. Gary treated the well in November and those results came back that it was still unsafe to drink. On New Year’s Eve, when the weather was finally warm enough, he fixed up the exterior part of the well that looked like it might be the problem and treated it again and YES! It passed!
I wish I could have been there to help you push the wheelbarrow! Wait, not help, I meant watch. I wish I could have watched you push the frozen wheelbarrow.
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