Crazy Day, Crazy Life

Well, well, well.....what do we have here? Another empty blog hole, I see. Let's see if we can make some repairs to this void.

As if things were not crazy enough, it seems as more and more crazy things keep getting thrown atop the previously established craziness. What that ends up leaving us with is just a whole heckofalot of crazy. Yep. That seems about right.

Bob's Chrsitmas light display is beautiful and going well, both at home and at Glencoe. He really has mastered a nice display of color combinations and saturations which just make such a lovely ever changing picture in our front yard. We have many visitors each night, and limos have again started coming by. We are requesting donations this year, to anyone who feels so moved, to be given to support Freedom Farm Therapeutic Riding Center where Melissa has benefitted tremendously. As we stumble around inside our dark house (cuz the inside lights would certainly ruin the effect of the outside show!), the kids giggle as they run up and down the hallways with their flashlights, looking for whatever it is they are searching for. And in order to get the maximum effect of the new arches this year, we move the 3 vehicles every evening to a remote spot down the road until the light show has ended at 10pm. Man, what we will do for those Christmas Lights! It is so much fun to hear the enjoyment that it brings to people in and around our community. We are SOOO very much hoping that people will continue to spread that joy by donating to Freedom Farm! Bob has a website set up with links at http://www.waconiachristmas.com/.

Speaking of vehicles, we are not having such a good track record lately. Bob's truck dying unexpectedly last month really set us back. To try to regain a bit of ground, we purchased a used Saturn with really good gas mileage for Alex to take back and forth to Mankato. This should decrease his $400/month gas bill by about half! Yippee! It is a fun little car to drive, but a bit slippy in the snow. With all of the country roads he has to maneuver in his 3 hour trek round trip each day, hmmmm.....he may end up back with the pint sized SUV.

With the snow and bitter cold storm of this week, my truck finally gave up, and had to be towed out of my driveway this morning. Yesterday, it sounded so sick that I was afraid to even attempt to take it out of the driveway. Thank heavens for good neighbors who will drive my kids to school at a moment's request! By later that afternoon, the poor thing didn't even want to turn over. I had the truck packed with little kids to attend school conferences at the elementary school with an immediate drive to church for play rehearsal following our meetings. We gathered the car seats, trekked down the road to where the itty bitty car was parked (it was almost light show time), and with MUCH effort, crammed those car seats into the itty bitty back seat. We ended up 20 minutes late to conferences, which is really not a good thing as Melissa has 5 people on her team who make an effort to be there for her specialized report. They all were leaving the room to head to other conferences as I lugged my baby and very cold children behind me. As Melissa's speech therapist approached us (who also is our neighbor and good friend), I fell completely out of my cool and calm character, and dissolved into a teary puddle of stressed-out mom. Who AM I these days?? A huge hug from my friend, and some very kind and compassionate words from Melissa's teacher, and my many anxieties which had come to the fore, trying to take me down once and for all that day, were beaten back enough to be able to function reasonably well for the rest of our long and tiring afternoon and evening.

Melissa's conferences are always difficult. The thrill of how many things she is doing well paired with the stark reality of all her looming limitations is daunting and overwhelming as a loving, caring, and concerned parent. She has such persistence and determination, and tries so very hard to do her very best. I am so proud of her that it brings tears to my eyes. Yet, for some reason, these conferences always remind me of just how tough so many things are and forever will be. Try as hard as I might, I am unable to leave those meeting rooms without a rather large lump in my throat.

Laura is doing so well, as expected. Little social butterfly, with lots of little friends, and such positive words ranging from kindness to gentleness from her teacher. Laura will be having surgery next Wednesday(December 16), to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. This has come up rather suddenly, and a quick visit to the ENT a few days ago confirmed her need for this surgery to occur. She is anxious about this event, and we are trying to do our best to calm her fears. Missing school over the next week, causing her to miss all the fun holiday activities, is on her list of things she is sad about. Her upcoming and quickly scheduled surgery is high on the stressors list at our house.

Crispy is having a great school year. Smart boy that he is, he is flying through his assignments, and reading at a level far beyond his age. He is showing some interest in creative activities such as art and story-making. This is funny to me, as only 12 months ago, he was still drawing stick figures with dots for eyes....as his best effort. Kids just never cease to surprise me!

Fast forward through the rest of our evening.......Laura to Jelly's rehearsal at church.....feed the other two a quick hot dog meal at Target......pick up Laura.....drop Crispy off, realizing Melissa doesn't actually have to be there tonight......drive to MOA (which is 45 minutes away) for the express purpose of purchasing a pre-surgical My Pillow Pet.....succeed in goal, as Laura picks out a soft pink piggy....walk through the new Barbie store without buying anything as we have no money, medical bills, and a huge vehicle repair bill (possibly, GASP, another new car) looming ahead of us.....a quick stop to try Bethany out in some baby high chairs.....pick up Crispy.....drive to Chaska to see Michael's hockey game.....witness a TOTALLY AWESOME game as we defeat the undefeated Chaska team!!!....drive back home(still freezing and cold, by the way since we left our house at 3:20pm).....walk into our dark house after 10pm......send our now very very tired children to bed (normal bedtime is between 8-8:30)....take care of the dog....throw some garbage away.....bring the crying baby upstairs.....collapse into bed.....and marvel at just how we made it through another crazy day.