A New Week

Back to school for The Kid. Some tricky business getting out of the house with my arms full (of slippery baby, lunch basket, extra clothes, purse and the valentines we forgot to bring a couple of weeks ago) and the dog attempting to cram himself through the door before we can all hussle through. And Big E HAS to jump into a snowbank EVERY morning, getting his boots packed with snow so that we arrive at school with soaking wet socks. And it was so COLD today! I think we are all finally starting to feel better again, the boys still do a bit of coughing at night, but seem OK in the daytime. Eli's started to loudly grind his teeth in his sleep, I have no idea what to do about it...I've just been sticking an old pacifier in his mouth, hoping that it will stop him. Anybody have any thoughts? So, this last weekend, I got everybody bundled up to go to Shaelagh's play, but then I quickly checked on-line to see if we were going to be on time....and it was NEXT weekend. Groan. I'm such a disorganized mess lately. Oh me, oh my. Well, anyway, our furnace quit on us last week, but Justin finally did manage to get it cobbled together enough to keep going for a little bit longer...we hope! It is, literally, an antique. 60+ years! OK, Myra just arrived, so I'll cut this short... talk to you all later!

Lazy Me

We had a good week and weekend. The Kid is on vacation from school now, which alternately feels a tiny bit like hell (because I never get a break), and heaven (because I don't have to hussle him out of bed, pack his lunch, lug both boy & baby to his classroom, late every morning). Thinking about ordering some baby chicks in a few weeks. And browsing the seed catalogs that have started arriving in the mail! We had a Harlequin Romance themed Valentine party which was both ridiculous and fun. Snowshoed into Grampa Sheehan's/Dad's camp and wandered around for an afternoon. Myra & Jim are on a ski trip to Wyoming. The Kid is recently obsessed with sharks, pirates (still) and He Pingping (The World's Smallest Man). The Baby is talking quite a lot,and into biting his brother... There are lots of photos over on my flickr account, but I haven't the energy to put them on here right now, nor write a more readable blog entry! Lazy, lazy me! The dog goes to the vet tomorrow morning to be neutered, poor guy. (He seems to have no idea that he's a dog, and tries to do everything the kids do. When they go in their playhouse, he goes right in too. He is still heartbroken about sleeping in the crate, but he's still chewing everything to pieces too...) Anyway, must run. The boys (all three of them) are begging for a "snack" (Ira's new favorite word, only he says "Nack"). Hope everyone is well! Love, Em

Ok, I added a couple of shots that were easy to get to, and too funny to resist...

Nice Day

A fun time on Saturday! Skiing, then James and Amelia's show, which was great. Loved it, the whole weekend!

Friday, Wonderful Friday

Justin had his follow-up appointment yesterday morning. Every test was normal. The MRI, EEG, CAT scan and blood work turned up no problems. That's awesome! Bad news is: the neurologist informed us that NH law says you can't drive a vehicle for six months after a seizure. I gulped, and asked what VT law was. ONE YEAR. How can that be?! Also they "won't force us, but highly recommend Justin be on a heavy dose of anti-seizure drug" ...For finding nothing wrong with him? (And drugs or not, he still can't drive, although we are guiltily ignoring that because WE HAVE TO!) The doctor says that all the so-called seizures Justin has had throughout his life, are not really seizures, but merely a form of shock or fainting, as I have thought all along, due to pain. He passes out, stops breathing, etc. BUT this last one he considers to be "real" because it happened in his sleep. I seriously wonder if Justin simply had a powerful dream in which he was hurt and that caused it. I mean, lots of things in dreams cause physical reactions. The brain is powerful and can certainly control your nerve endings, or so I assumed.... The neurologist said that wasn't possible. Damn medical people. They are so afraid of covering their asses, and too quick to slap a prescription on you! Anyway, some of the drug's side effects include greatly increased suicide risk (Yay), gums growing over your teeth (not joking) etc, etc. I highly doubt Justin will decide to take it, just doesn't seem worth it. It's all terribly frustrating.... We don't really have a plan yet, just trying to deal with each day as it comes. Last night was fire meeting, so we took the boys to climb around in the trucks, something we haven't done for a couple of months. The Baby is now big enough to love fire trucks too, was cute, watching the two of them and Av race around the station. Lucky little kiddies! They have colds, but so far don't seem too uncomfortable. I popped into the Grange last night to watch six of my former dance sweeties practice for the Mini-Mud Season Talent Show. Super adorable, even considering the trendy pop song of choice. Justin wants to go snowboarding this weekend, but if the boys aren't feeling well, it might not be possible..we'll see. Our friends, James and Amelia, are also having a joint photography show this weekend that I'm hoping to get to. Oh, I am looking forward to spring more than ever! Rather tired of the static/dog hair, cold, gamble to pull out of our driveway because the six foot snowbank makes it impossible to see, bundling the kids up in a million layers, oil tank that seems to need refilling every two weeks, perpetual snuffy noses, the pup can get out of the fence because it's so buried and we are constantly barely saving him from being hit by a car, frozen pipes, short days, being trapped in basically one room because we turn the heat way down during the day upstairs, piles of wet things in the mudroom that never seem to dry, mismatched socks (I sent E. to school two days ago wearing one sock of his brothers, and one of mine), and so on..... Ooooooo, If I didn't love Vermont so much....but I do. I could never leave here. On a funnier (?) note, Mom tried to help me organize the mass amounts of paperwork piled all over the house last week. I was doubtful we could make a dent in it, but she smugly informed me the she "can organize ANYTHING". An hour or two later, she admitted defeat saying that "nobody could fix this mess." Truthfully, we DID make a dent, but seven days later, it's right back to square one. Justin's biggest faults are procrastination and being a slob...which is not great when it comes to dealing with bills... I try, on occasion, but then he freaks out that I've messed up his system...ummmm, SYSTEM?! Towering piles of mail leaning off of every conceivable surface seems like no system to me....but hey, I was raised by The Organizer, what do I know? Anyhow, now that I got the brief husband-bashing out of my system, I can go back to being cranky at the world in general. Just kidding, I'm really not in a bad mood, even if the Littlest Bub did get his head stuck between the seat and armrest of a dining room chair this morning. I found it sickly funny that Myra somehow tore the doors (? door? haven't heard the whole story yet) off her car, backing down her driveway before work yesterday, and had to borrow Mom's car. Myra always does the weirdest car things...like the time she locked her keys in her car when they still were on a cord around her wrist....yeah...how does one even do such a thing?! My own car is in disguise at the moment, since I cleaned it. It looks just like a car owned by a nice, normal, tidy person! OK, that's all the news I can think of at the moment. Things are moving along and there is always a silver lining to everything, right? I just need to watch some Rogers and Hammerstein or something to regain a cheery outlook! (Wow, rereading all this, I am the Queen Of Run-On Sentences! Sweet!) Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! XXOO -Emily

Lambing Season

A wee bit early for lambing, but makes me hopeful that spring is on the way! The Kid thinks the Barreda's barn is the "funnest" place in the world.