7 posts tagged “family”

Things are still fun and exciting at work. Now before you get the idea that everything is perfect, it is not. I just choose not to stress over the imperfect. My boss does not always communicate well. Somethings I found out directly relating to me, I actually overheard as she was telling somebody else outside my door. Ha. There is an issue of my pay. When does that exactly happen? Hmmm. Not sure, but since this is not causing my family hardship I am going to wait until this Friday and see what happens. Also I need to go to one of our other sites next week. I found out because the co-worker I am meeting there told me that Boss told him he might want to meet me somewhere so I can follow him. Fuck that! I'm not following a man. She may need a man for things, but I have Google, Bing, Yahoo and an awesome sense of direction. I politely declined his offer. Even he laughed at the idea.

The job, however is fantastic. Everyday I meet with all sorts of people. Most are excited at their new adventure that I get to help them map out. One student came in for an unofficial audit for GRADUATION! I am so happy for her and I have never met her before. She had to know I was happy for her because I was smiling like an idiot and bouncing. THEN later I had a drunk person in my office. The student had just taken a test and was sent to see an advisor. They should not have sent him to me but this happens and it is not a big deal. He was slurring and telling me all of the schools he's been to and the online college he is attending. It was all hard to follow, but I sent him on his way to the right place. If I was wrong, he will not remember. Believe it or not this was the second drunk person in our offices this week and I did not even work on Tuesday!

Thing 2 may be getting the flu. He was directly exposed to H1N1 (aka hini) but he also receive the mist vaccine. That can cause a low grade fever and a little coughing from the drip. The kids' main school is closed for the rest of the week because so many students and staff are ill. However, they both have to go to their other schools. T2 doesn't have it today so he can just rest and do homework.

Well I am off to work! Yay.

My initial thought for a title was something to do with a whirlwind. That seemed to overstate things. A vortex though seemed more appropriate. Maybe they are the same thing, but I picture a progression of intensity in a vortex. At first, I think there is just riding along on the edge. You know you will get sucked in sometime, but depending on the conditions you just go with the flow for a bit. Maybe it is a density issue. Maybe a more dense particle will get swept in sooner. Right now, I am on the edge of this vortex figuring out how to navigate the current, but I can see a little bit ahead of me and I see there is no way to get away from what lies before me.

Mom is not having surgery. They think there was only one small stone that passed and when it did it irritated the pancreas. Her levels are now decreasing. However, a bigger problem has come to light: Alzheimer's. Oh she has been forgetful for a bit now. And I still have to tell you about when she accused me of stealing. This morning she called her sister-in-law to come and get her because she was checking out of the hospital! Why didn't she call Daddy? Also, she thought she had left the hospital. She called him last night and told him that she was going back to the hospital. He was wondering where she had been (he knew she did not really leave.)

While we were waiting for the doctor to discharge her she and Daddy and I talked a bit about it. I tend not to hold back. I told her that she needs somebody with her at all of her appointments. Then I told them that I think she should not drive. Both of them balked at this. When the doctor came in, he gave me the low down on what was going on. I brought up her memory. He said we are looking at Alzheimer's. He has her on some medication for it. I asked him his opinion on her driving. He agreed with me. Mom and Dad's argument is that she does not drive far. Holy crap! What if she forgets to turn and ends up in Chicago? It could happen. I called my brother who live with them, Ric, and gave him the information. Then I told him that if either of them says anything different than what I said, they are lying. OK maybe lying is harsh, denying. Either way, she should not drive.

Right now I don't have a plan. I think I need to find a support group or just begin reading and getting more information. I told Alan that we may need to make a room downstairs for us so if Mom needs to stay with us (not permanently) she can sleep in our room and we can sleep in the basement.

I don't think Dramamine is going to alleviate my motion sickness during my ride in the vortex. Actually, I am allergic to it. Guess I am just going to have to learn to use the technique of spotting. That looks hard on the neck, but I will try. 

My mother-in-law called the other day and greeted me with, "Well, I had my colonoscopy today." Well there's a fine how-do-you-do?

Guess that she has been going around making the general announcement to anybody with ears. Alan's brother told me that she ran into a friend of his and managed to tell him too.

He wins.

Where to begin?

How about an update on J and Smash? I don't think that is going to work out. They do not seem to have a lot in common. I think J has hang-ups about him being a jock and her not being popular. They went out once. Then his family came to our house for New Year's Eve (more about that later), but the two of them skipped out for a little bit to go to a concert. When they got home we all played Apples to Apples. Later she said she does not know if they will go out again or not. Anjie and I were laughing about the fact that the kids don't do a lot of talking to each other. They email and contact each other through MySpace. I know, this makes me a hypocrite of sorts. Through my diary and bb I have formed real friendships. I know understand that at least with AIM and other such programs they are able to communicate with each other in real time. Back to the teens: Maybe the height difference did them in. They look funny together. Not that they were too together. Once they got in the house they did not go near each other. I guess I just like the idea that I know Smashs family and ideas. This makes it another example of my control issues.

Christmas was nice. We had all of the family, friends and fun that goes with the holidays. On Christmas Eve we went to a friends house. There was another family there as well. Our kids have grown up together. The other family's kids all  go to the same school. Mine are in another district. It was so fun to see all 8 of the kids ranging in age from 10 -18 all playing together. We all used to belong to a pool and the kids would play for hours and hours. The big boys took care of the little boys, the girls floated in the pool, the moms talked and read books. It was a great time. Then our pool was torn down. I digress. Since we have all of our family in town, we see them all of the time. Mary, our hostess, has no family in town. Betsy's family has a bit of both. Being with friends on Christmas Eve just seems to capture more of Christmas for me.

New Year's Eve was fun too. Anjies husband was nervous about coming, but he and Alan hit it off. For two quiet men they managed to do a lot of gabbing. I hope we can have other get together's in the future.

Now Alan is back to school. J is back at one school. Cole and I are just hanging out this morning. Monday everybody is back full force, except for me. Maybe that's when all of this will hit. I am beginning to feel a little of it now. What am I supposed to do? Actually, I know the answer to that. I need to campaign for a job. It will not be easy. Right now it feels like I have been in a time warp and I have been zinged back to 2005. I don't feel educated. Sometimes I look at my writing and think I have not been to college. College. I guess that I can cross that off my list now.

Finally, this marathon thing may not happen this spring. For about three weeks I have had some back issues. It is nothing horrible but sometimes walking hurt. Actually, sometimes driving hurt. This does not mean that I am giving up. No,no,no. My race date will just shift. Keep on me though.

Here is a slide show of our family year in review. Enjoy.

This picture looks nasty. But I was so proud of myself. Today after school I went to the store and picked up a rotisserie chicken and made white chicken chili, on the right, and chicken salad. Oooo. I feel so organized.

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You know I don't love the photo posts here but I am going to try.

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Success. See. This is what my life has come too. I called Alan to see if we needed anything from the store. Since I was driving, I grabbed a pen and made the note on my hand. I did not however take this picture while I was driving.

At school our fourth graders have to observe animals. We have snails, dwarf frogs, and some kind of crab. Last week we ran into a couple of problems. First our tank went black. The stench was horrible. We had to get rid of a bunch of dead snails and start all over. Then on Friday the kids went to observe and saw that a frog had got stuck head first in a snail. I have a little video too. Maybe I can get that up. I tried to pull the frog out as gentle as possible. Each time I pulled I thought I was going to pull his head off. Finally, I began to chip away at the snails shell. Another intern came in and finished the job for me and saved the frog. The snail, however did not make it.  

 Dancing with the Stars begins this week. My goal is to post Brunoisms. That is one funny guy. Right now I am watching Heros. What a fun show! Of course Thursday is filled with conflict about what to watch. My Name is Earl, The Office, Ugly Betty, Grey's, and Survivor for some family members. Yes. We are potatos!

I have been trying hard to post a picture of my neice and of what I am knitting for her. This embeding is not my favorite. The point is, this is my beautiful new neice, Hillary. I am knitting a jacket for her. I am a bit late getting started but she will not notice. Yesh. Was that really so hard for me to communicate?