Thursday, June 29, 2006

Blatherquickie

Greetings, blog fans! We're here in South Dakota having a fine and relaxing time. The girls have been swimming, playing at the playground, and (blessedly) sleeping in. Tomorrow we pack up and head for Lake Okoboji (Iowa) for a few days. I don't know if I'll find a wi-fi place there (I'm in a McDonald's right now) but if I get more time I'll post a detailed blog. But for now...

Hello, I must be going...

Hurray for Captain Spaudling!!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Blatherskite and Other Updates

Yeah, I know, it's been over two weeks since I last posted. Sorry, folks. It's been a little busy around here...

1) Mary's appointments to doctors, nurses and dieticians kept us hopping. We're finally at a point where we have the carbohydrates thing pretty well nailed down, and we've gotten her insulin levels to where the medical people are happy. This despite the fact that Mother Nature seems to be conspiring against us every time we go for a medical visit. It was raining on Wednesday when we went to see the dietician, and a week ago Wednesday, when we went to see the nurse-specialist, we drove under a wall cloud (south of town). I had the girls watch it, looking for rotation, but we drove past it and north to the hospital complex. However, as we pulled into the parking lot, the tornado sirens went off. I stopped my truck next to the doors and told the girls to get inside now and wait for me. The staff saw them coming and took them to shelter while I parked, then I ran inside, too. I went back out for just a brief period to see if there was anything I needed to report to the National Weather Service (I'm a NWS trained spotter) but I knew the action was well to the south because I'd already driven past it. But hey, I did my duty.

2) Today is the girls' last day at swimming lessons. Those have gone well. Mary tests her own blood glucose levels, and Hannah writes them down on a chart I made her. Hannah also writes down everything Mary eats, so I can track that, too. The swimming lessons thing is neat: parents pay the kids' lesson fees, the school district provides a bus and fuel (a decent use of my tax dollars, finally) and the towns serviced by the bus pay for the driver. A sweet deal, all the way around. And the girls are learning the swimming safety stuff I never learned, which makes me very happy.

3) I've been trying hard to catch up on housework, and this week I'm finally making serious headway. I got Mary's room picked up (by which I mean I sorted through everything and threw away two wastebaskets full of papers, fabric scraps and other craft-related remnants) and I got it vacuumed. I also got my floors mopped. This sounds gross, but it's been over a month since I've mopped. But like I said, I've been busy, and rarely at home long enough to do anything. And even when I am home, the things I want to do are interrupted by "crisis" problems like...

4) Wedesday, we found a rabbit's nest in our back yard. I mean, I know rabbits aren't the brightest creatures on planet Earth, but how could Mommy Rabbit not know, just from the smell, that there was a large dog living in the same yard? When we found the nest, the girls went postal because Judah stuck his big fat schnorg in the hole, pulled out a bunny and immediately crushed it. This was even grosser than my unmopped floors. I won't go into detail but I think

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

says it all. Anyway. So the dog was dancing around, trying to get back to the nest for more Baby Bunny Salad, Mary was crying almost uncontrollably, and Hannah was screaming at the dog. Mary was begging me to do something to protect the bunnies, so I started barking out orders. I told Mary to go back into the house, finish her breakfast and get ready for swim lessons. I told Hannah to guard the nest while I went and retrieved stuff to build a fence. I grabbed whatever I could find in the shed, ran to the garage for tools, and started building. I managed to get a fence erected around the nest, get the tools sort of put away (memo to Carl - make sure the staple guns have staples in them!) AND I got the girls to swim lessons on time. Unfortunately, my fence wasn't adequate, and by the time I got back Moose Mutt had gotten inside the enclosure and helped himself to more bunnies (six total). I buried them in the garden, and shored up the fence because I could still see movement in the nest. But the dog was still stronger than the fence, and while we were visiting the dietician the last two bunnies went to meet their Maker. Mary was crushed, and now she won't have anything to do with Judah. Hannah was upset, but seemed to understand that this was Nature and that's what dogs do. I was ticked off because the girls were upset, but later wished that Hannah knew how to play "Taps" on her trombone so that we could've given the bunnies a HRCA send-off. (Don't worry if you don't understand that last sentence. Very few people do.)

Anyway. Today is yet another busy day. It's Hannah's birthday. (she's 12!) I already have things finished for her celebration, which will be tomorrow so my Mom can join us. The insurance adjuster guy showed up a few minutes ago, and now he's on my roof assessing whether or not we got hail damage. I have clothes to sort through, laundry to iron and hang up, and at 11:30 I need to retrieve my girls from the swimming lesson bus. I doubt that life will slow down any time soon - Saturday is Hannah's birthday party, Sunday is Father's Day, and next week Mary has soccer camp.

At least I've been losing some weight!