Birthday Boy

Wednesday was C's 38th b-day.  He had a tough day at work so the kids and I tried to put nice things for him at the beginning and end of his day.

The kids made him cards and gave them to him before he left for work.

Then his parents sent him a care package of  Zweigle's White Hots  (Wikipedia Explanation here) along with the required Zweigle's Hat.  I searched out a Carvel Ice Cream Cake  which is also a birthday staple of his childhood.  Along with wonderful cards from many family and friends I think he had a nice day.   

WHEW! I passed!

I'm doing the happy dance.  I passed the two classes that I was worried about after I took finals before Christmas!  Physiology=C  and Herbology 2=B!!!!  They must have REALLY had to curve it for me to get those grades!  That's all I have to say.  Acu 2 was an A like I expected.  Thank the gods of multiple choice finals.

Classes started back up for me this past Weds. (1/7).  Unfortunately they canceled one of my classes (Herbology 3) because only 4 people signed up for it.  But they added a class that I need to take in order to continue on with the Western Medicine part of my degree.  Histology.  Wow.  My least favorite part of physiology (cells and tissue) and now I get to take a class that focuses entirely on cells and tissues.  Someone shoot me now.  But, it is a prerequisite for pathology and microbiology and on up so I needed to take it now.  And I thought I was a big grouch LAST semester!  But, I do get a break from the herbs which should give me plenty of time to review (yeah, right!  Like THAT will happen).

To make a long story short, my schedule went from going 3 nights a week to classes to just 2 nights a week:  Tuesdays 5-9p and Wednesdays 230-1010pm.  Wednesdays are going to kill me so I still plan on taking Thursdays to recuperate.  Tuesdays are my acupuncture classes:  Acu 3=learning point locations beyond the 14 channels and Scalp Acupuncture=just what it sounds like) while Wednesdays are Western Medicine focused (Counseling and Patient Communication, Psychology and Histology).  I have hope I will make it through this semester without too much pain.  15 weeks and counting...

The Beasties

So the animals made the pet sitter (CL) work very hard for his money while we were out of town.  Brody was pretty destructive but we expected it.  I think that CL felt bad about it but he went above and beyond to try to stop him.  The dog mostly just peed on the carpet and had to be exiled from 3/4 of the house.  Luckily most of the downstairs is tile so CL was able to contain him there.  He chewed up a couple of stuffed animals but we made sure that the bulk of the kids' toys were closed off in their bedrooms before we left.  The one thing that he damaged that I could probably fix ( IF I knew how to sew!!)  is my Garfield.  I've had the thing for nearly 25 years.  I guess Brody didn't like the little faces in Garfield's slippers:

He just worked them out yet left them all intact.  Crazy pooch.  It cracks me up.

Before we left we got a tip from C's sister, CF, about these dog toys made from fire hose.  According to C, he said that CF's dogs are big chewers yet it took them several years to break through these things.  Brody had 2 for roughly 3 weeks.  This is what is left of the first one:

The second one succumbed to the same fate just last night.  

Rusty the cat also gave CL a scare.  He somehow acquired an infection in his left eye.  It was very swollen and CL had to take him to the vet the day before we returned.  Jetta, the other cat, was the only one who didn't cause any problems.

Dang critters!  It is a very good thing they are all so lovable.  It saves their hides time and time again.

Another Season!!

I'm so excited!  I didn't have to wait long (only 3 weeks) for the next season of the Biggest Loser!  YAY!  I love that show.  It is inspirational.  I love the twist they are pulling right off the bat where nearly half of the players have to go home and lose weight on their own for 30 days.  Awesome. 

Adventures in airline travel

It feels like I have several topics to catch up on from the past 2 weeks so I'm trying to break them down into manageable short stories instead of one big novel!  So, with that in mind, here are our stories from our flights to and from Rochester.

As I may have mentioned before in previous posts, we traveled from Houston to Rochester, NY ON Christmas day.  The airports weren't jam-packed with people but they weren't exactly quiet either.  Thanks to Delta and their itinerary change, we had to bounce twice to get there instead of the usual once.  We bounced through Atlanta then Cincinnati before hitting Rochester 2 hours later than what we had originally planned.  We knew about this change well ahead of time but we were still very annoyed by it.  We had some compensation though when we flew from Houston to Atlanta with no incident, took off from Atlanta with no problems and were treated to an incredible view of a Christmas sunset that lasted for a really long time.  It went from brilliant yellow to bright orange to blood red over about 30-45 minutes time.  I just now am asking myself why one of us didn't grab the camera and try to get a photo of it.  We were just too tired I guess.  

Our landing in Cincinnati was a bit out of the ordinary for us.  The female pilot brought us in rather quickly with many turns and steep drops.  Even the flight attendant who was hanging out just behind me made the comment, "wow, this is some crazy flying tonight!"  Our only disappointments for the day were that Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream was closed in Atlanta and many of the food court restaurants were closed or nearly out of food when we had our short layover in Cinci.  Besides that, we landed on time, received our luggage without having to wait forever and headed out into the snow!

Our return to Houston was much more exciting.  First, we started the day out by taking off nearly an hour late from Rochester.  It seems they had to fill the plane with extra fuel and in doing so caused the plane to be overweight.  They needed 10--that's TEN--people to give up their seats so that they would be within the weight restrictions of the FAA.  I had never come up against that one before!  Ten people over weight??  Seriously??  That must be 1500-2000 pounds!  I guess between the number of kids (obviously not weighing what an adult weighs) and 7-8 passengers who gave up their seats we were back in compliance and we took off for Atlanta after getting de-iced.

Atlanta was incredibly foggy.  Thank goodness for flying by instruments because that was the only way we were landing there.  Visibility was poor and the runway had just barely popped into view about 2-3 seconds before we landed!  It was still foggy when we took off but it didn't seem to slow us down any.  Between Atlanta and Houston we hit some bad turbulence.  Fortunately C and the kids were all fast asleep and they didn't even stir.  I was fine as it was more of a rough dirt road kind of a bounce instead of those quick falls and climbs that get your guts all churned up.  The flight attendants had to sit in their jump seats for about 20-30 minutes but then things seemed to calm down.  As we were landing, however, we were getting hit by some pretty strong cross winds and the pilot was having one heck of a time keeping the plane level.  I was thinking to myself "I will be so impressed if he lands this thing."  Just as the image came to mind of that famous 1989 plane crash footage from Iowa where the landing plane goes cartwheeling down the runway in a ball of flames (I couldn't find footage on the internet but I've seen it numerous times on t.v. programs)...  Now where was I?  

Oh, yes, as that image came to mind roughly 150 feet above the runway at Hobby Airport, the pilot revved up the engines, brought up the landing gear and we took off again without touching down.  I looked back at C and said, "I guess we got waved off!"  It took a good 5 minutes before the Captain came on and said that we were doing a come around or something like that.  The winds were hitting us at 20 knots and they weren't comfortable landing so, in the interest of safety blah, blah, blah...  I was perfectly happy with with their decision.  So, as we did our 15 minute tour of the city we did a little rockin' and rollin'.  Again, it wasn't consistent or extreme enough to get my guts churning so I didn't think much about it.  M started crying complaining that she really wanted to get off the plane.  I was trying to calm her down and encouraged her to look out the window to see that we were indeed coming in for another attempt at landing.  About 200 feet above the runway, she threw up.  I couldn't get a barf bag fast enough.  She was a mess, the seat was a mess, I was gagging.  It wasn't pretty.

But, we managed to get cleaned up, get home and, needless to say, momma was DONE.  The kids went off to AB's to play while C and I showered and got some food.  Then we both just crashed on the couch.  

We are always so happy to see our far away family and friends but it is so very nice to come back home.  And that is my story about our travels.  

Quiz

These two handsome young men are in first grade.  Can you tell which one is O and which one is C?  Ok, so they aren't identical but it is fun to see them side by side.  Thanks to Grandma (and her amazing gift for storing photos so she knows right where to go in her house to find whatever one she needs at the moment) we got the chance to compare!

We are still alive and well on this last day of 2008

Whew! The past 2 weeks have been a blur. Between finals and holiday parties/gatherings, shopping for gifts, preparing to travel...well, it has just been overwhelming. To say the least. Let me see if I can summarize it all without writing a novel!

Finals: I can only blame myself if I fail to pass those. I studied. I studied hard. But, not LONG enough. I took a class years and years ago when I was a freshman in college on study skills. I KNOW what I need to do for long-term retention and understanding of any class content. I have been able to squeak by without doing that though through all of my adult education. As a result, I have decent grades but no real retention of the subject matter I've covered. If I've used the information then I remember it. If I haven't used it, then it is pretty much gone from my brain.

Anyway, with that said, I feel pretty confident that I did well on my Acu 2 final. Herb 2 and Physiology.......I'm hoping for a miracle. I need at least a C to pass and not have to take the classes over again. Of course I'm hoping for that but at the same time, I'm wondering if having to spend the money again to repeat a class will encourage me to make better use of my study time. I will need that skill as I get to the more advanced classes. Something to work on for next semester I guess.

Christmas: We shopped and planned everything down to the minute to fit it all in to the time we had. We traveled on Christmas Day so we opted to open our gifts from my family and from us on Christmas Eve. That worked out well. Christmas morning the kids slept in and barely had time to see what Santa had brought them before we were running out the door to the airport. It was chaotic, frustrating and exhausting but we made it through all of our flights without incident and landed safely in Rochester around 9:20 in the evening. It wasn't snowing at the time but there was lots of snow on the ground and the kids could hardly wait to play in it.

We were big slugs for the first 2 days. C's dad, TM, had been very sick with upper respiratory issues. His mom, KM, had been fighting her own bug but took such good care of us those first few days as we were so wiped out. We slept and ate, and ate, and ate some more then took naps. It was much needed rest and relaxation for all of us. However, now we have all strongly returned to our night owl ways. We are rarely in bed before midnight and it is often an argument to get the kids to go to bed even then. Then we sleep most of the morning away often getting up no earlier than 10am. It doesn't bother me as much as it bothers C. We had a big discussion about it the other night. He kept saying that it isn't normal for kids to stay up as late as our kids do. I say they are just doing what their bodies naturally want to do. They are getting enough sleep just at a different time of the day. If we were to homeschool the kids (which would definitely push me over the edge!) I would keep the same schedule because it just suits us. Yes, when we get up earlier we get more done, I agree. But when we sleep when we are tired and wake when we are not, we are all much happier people. It is difficult finding a happy medium between the two.

Anyway, just know that we are for sure getting our R&R covered while we are at T&KM's. I've seemingly fought off a cold virus and C seems to be doing the same. TM is doing much better but still has the cough that keeps him from sleeping well. KM seems to be losing her fight with the bug as I found her this morning sitting in the recliner to sleep. You know how it is when you are coughing and congested and it is so much easier to sleep sitting up. The kids have been totally unscathed by the cold virus. Amazing. We have all also avoided some rampant strain of pink eye that has been going around the area. Knock on wood we will continue to avoid that for the rest of our trip. Hopefully we can get back to Houston without bringing any bugs with us. Now THAT would be amazing.

So, we have taken full advantage of C's sister's in-laws when it comes to food. Her mother-in-law got together with some friends and relatives and had a baking day before Christmas. They made a ton of cookies and a huge variety of them to boot. It seems that no one wanted to take them all home so she brought a huge box of them to us. Well, we certainly took care of them! And they were good! I had forgotten how much I love 7 Layer Magic Bars with the graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and coconut. I leave off the nuts and so did KF which made them all the more irresistible. I think we sustained ourselves in those first few days here on 90% cookies and 10% "real" food.

The remainder of our trip involves visiting several family members and friends. We are having a great time here. This morning it is snowing and that is a welcome sign for us. Over the weekend it warmed up and rained and literally washed the previous snow accumulation away. Now we have a few inches on the ground and it looks beautiful. Ask me later how beautiful I think it is when I have to go out in it!

Happy New Year to all of you. Here's to health, happiness and all the best in 2009. Kisses all around.