Who's sicklyerest

It was quite cute, on Fri morning, which was after the night that I was the sickest and still not feeling too great in the morning, I came upstairs and found Macy and Stella and Hattie and Papaw. I looked at Macy and said, "I'm sick, somebody made me sick." Macy said, "Stella or Macy?" and I said, yes. Macy quickly replied, "Stella."

Christmas morning

Jason was supposed to get to Utah on Christmas Eve around 2pm, instead, he spent all day in the Indy airport, finally went home and caught a flight out early on Christmas morning. Chris and Alyona picked him, and joined the rest of us at Paige's. Still not as bad as his experience trying to get home last year, stuck at the SLC airport, finally got a flight to Chicago and drove to Indy. Then it was all weather; this time it was problems with the plane.

Still, we had a nice Christmas.

 Poor little Macy was still sick, but getting better, and got a few of the rest of us (me! and Jessica and Alyona a little) sick.

For Christmas Eve we stayed at Paige's because my mom and sis Kris came over, Paige and fam went to the Upstills. Christmas Dinner was at Paige's, and the Upstills and Kristi came for that. It was enjoyable.

Friday the skiers were only Jason and Chris. Usually a bunch go, but Scott and Jessica went to Oklahoma for her family's Christmas with a grandmother who isn't expected to live much longer, Paige couldn't leave nursing Hatie for that long, Rick's hip hurts too much, Kincade was working and I haven't skiied for 60 pounds ago.

Jason left early on Sat, Rick and I did some after Christmas sales with Paige and ggrrls, Paige and fam went to get family pics and Rick and I were onto Chris' for borscht and salad. Watched The Villian, which I had been trying to get everyone to see. I saw it 30 years ago and remembered it being funny. It's not.

Rick left early this morning, and I will stay for Scott and Macy's Bday, Jan 1 and 3. I go back home on Jan 7 because tickets were half the price than they were earlier.

Macy sick

Stella came home sick from school last week, passed it on to both Macy and Paige (and Macy was just getting over from a bout of something or other). Yesterday we were out and they weren't feeling well, so Rick took both Stella and Macy home. Macy took a nap and when she woke up, her temp was high and her chest was raspy, so Paige and I took her over to the InstaCare. The doc there said he wasn't set up to really see what was happening with her, but because of a fever of 103.5 and a heartrate of 160 (quite high) he recommended she be taken to the hospital ER. Kincade met Paige and I came home.

There they weren't as worried as the InstaCare doc, saying the high heart rate was normal with a high fever, took some chest x-rays to make sure more wasn't going on, gave a prescription for antibiotics (for the ear infection he found, but told Paige we are the only Western country that treats for ear infections) and sent her home. She hadn't eaten much yesterday, so Kincade had stopped and gotten her a McDouble and she ate almost the entire thing.

Meanwhile, Hattie had woken up and it was dinner time. She doesn't like bottles, even with breast milk in them. But this time, with no options, Rick was able to get her to take a bottle. Sure wasn't happy until she got a little food in her tummy.

When you have children, the fun and games never end. If it's not one thing, then it's another. As parents, I think being worried about your children continues until you die or become senile.

Weather and weather and weather

Having been raised in Idaho and enjoyed all the snow and cold weather when it came, I have to say I really enjoyed living in the 2 warm states I have, North Carolina and Texas. Today it's supposed to be 77*. It was 11* in Eagle Mt a few days ago.

Rick and I went to a Christmas dinner party last night, it was at The Domain (Austin's "nice" mall). The side facing the mall walk area was open (altho had big glass doors/windows that could be pulled to close it) and it was fun to be sitting in the open air, essentially, having the dinner party.

I write all this because Chris sent us a pic looking out his French doors.
Well anyway, lots of snow (I have tried for 10 min to post it, so I'm giving up).

I think when we retire to the Utah Valley area, we will need the winter house in St George.

And these are our Leaders and Statesmen, behaving like Jr and High School "In-group" kids

Everything is political

I was buying stamps to mail my Christmas cards, and bought some nativity type and then saw the Hannukkah stamps and asked for some of those also. I was talking to my sis Kris and told her I had bought Hannukkah stamps. She said, "Why did you do that?" with the implication that since I'm a Christian....
I said to show solidarity with Israel, because of Iran's continuing promise to obliterate the country as soon as they get nukes, and the entire Mideast assembling against them, and with Obama's foreign policy such that Israel is not able to count on the Americans as their oldest ally since statehood in 1948 (and before).

She said, chuckling, I read one of your last posts, and it is true - you can make anything political.
I take that as a compliment.
     

Needed - Christmas cheer

Today I had some errands to run, take back some stuff to a couple of stores, and buy a few other things. My Christmas shopping is done, stick a fork in it (thanks to Scott), so I didn't even have the excuse of harried shopping. The crowds and people everywhere were making me crazy. The traffic is worse, and I always seem to choose the wrong lane or line. (At the airport a flight or two ago, a man and his kids were going thro security and the daughter asked her dad which line to get in and he pointed to the line behind me. I said, "I should just warn you that whichever line I'm in is always the slowest." "Me, too, so maybe we'll cancel each other out and this time it will be the fastest.")

Anyways, I wasn't feeling too cheerful or peaceful. Thought some bad words (might have muttered a few), then took a deep breath.

Always good to take a deep breath and remember who it is we are really celebrating and why. Then enjoy the lights, the music and songs, the parties, the presents - but remember it is all about the Savior. Helps to refocus the mind back towards what is important, and what is just fluff.
 

Christmas lights

Rick and I have been meaning to drive around and look at the Christmas lights, so last night we did. I had 4 locations that were supposed to be really pretty and they were. On one short street with a cul-de-sac they had a theme of the poem "Twas the night before Christmas." Everyone had a part of the poem written in cursive on a board 6'x4' or something like that. They had hot choc at the end. Most people went there, parked and walked it. We would have done that but were in our jamies. Didn't even bring a phone so no pics. All of the lights were extensive and pretty.

Next year I decided that we will put some up. Or perhaps it will just be Yvonne, since Rick is so busy with work. Anyway, after Christmas I will go to the sales and get some stuff. I would love to have a lighted Nativity, since that is the purpose of Christmas - to worship Jesus, remember Him and His birth and message to us.

Brrrrrrr

It was 82 on Tues, then the temp started dropping. On Fri morning, after a night of freezing rain, the roads were bad. These super high interstate and state highway passes were not built for this kind of weather. Rick put his jeep in 4wheel drive and went up his usual route, the farther he got up, the more the wind was knocking him around and the more ice he ran into. Many cars were on the top, afraid to come down because they had been sliding so much. Lots of accidents. Texas seldom sees this type of weather - in Indy or Philly, the sand and salt trucks would have been out all night, getting the roads ready for rush hour. No sand or salt trucks here.

It's still cold, but temps are going back up. It should be 49* today, mid 40s for the week and 50* by Thurs. The banana plant just needs to be cut back, and the 2 palms seem ok. They are guaranteed for 1 year, so I'm not too worried. Fri night Rick went out with some sheets, but the sheets would have to have been at least 4x bigger to even come close to doing any good.

Oh, but guess what? Now the global warmists are warning of 30 years of cold and BAD winter weather. The original guy who came up with the theory said he thought if the planet warmed a bit, on the whole it would be a net benefit to us.

Now, with the kooks new prophecy, we'll only be hoping that the global warming theory was true. But the truth is, weather - ice ages and warming periods, have occurred on this planet for millions of years and we puny humans can't change it either way.

I guess this post means that I can change any entry into a political diatribe at the drop of a hat, er snowflake.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eleven people, including Rick and me, and James, Braden's little toddler. Lee and his girlfriend, Keisha came also, so nice to see him. (Sad that he and Emily divorced, but Keisha was quite nice. I hope Emily finds someone great also. Interesting, both Emily and Keisha had the same "look." I think guys especially have a particular type of look they like and have the same girlfriend over and over again. Just my theory.)
We did miss Scott and Jessica, wish they had been here. Well, Paige and fam also, but they never could have come.
Once again, I didn't take enough pics. I wish I had, I need to concentrate on doing that.

So Rick and I picked up Jason and Kenny from the airport on Wed, then the feasting began when we went to Rudy's. Came back home, Jason needed to go somewhere (where?) and Rick went back to the airport to get Chris and Alyona. I stayed with Jason, and on the way from wherever we went, we stopped and got icecream from Shakes (I didn't, I was still doing good).

For dinner we went to Torchy's, 7pm. Loooong line, took 20 min to get to the front, then 40 min to get our food, which they were running out of (and keep in mind that this is a fast food type of place).

The guys (except for Rick) went and played in the Turkey Bowl on Tday morning. They were quite disappointed, after 1 1/2 hours Bro Webster shut it down. They are used to playing for 2-4 hours.

I put Rick to work helping me cook and set the table.
Here is my set dinner, I've been doing it for 10 years:
Turkey, ham, rolls, smashed potatoes, sweet potato cass, green bean cass, baked beans, corn, dressing, cranberry sauce, gravy. Desserts - Anika brought a delish apple pie, I bought cheesecake, made pumpking pie, and Kenny made a flan
We went for a walk after dinner, I felt really bad because when we got to the bottom of the hill I asked if they were up for a 3 mile walk, forgetting about the little pregnant lady, due in 2 1/2 weeks. We walked along the little creek, up the rocks and out into the subdivision. I kept asking Anika if she wanted me to call Rick to come and get her, she said no. I kept expecting her to go into labor at any moment.

Fri, the kids all went shopping to the outlet mall and were disappointed at the lack of deals, Braden went to see a great uncle, and we all met at Torchy's for lunch. We played card games, and that night we went swimming in the "heated" pool. It was luke warm and wasn't actually tooo bad but the air was cold so freezing was what I did and quickly got out, but they played in the water for 45 min. That night they ordered Rudy's. I was watching them eat in amazement, it didn't even look good, and I was still doing good with eating like a normal person and not like a hog.

Sat, Jason to airport (said he was so full he didn't even want Torchy's), Braden left, and Chris, Alyona, Rick and I went to downtown Austin to see some sights. Ate at Whole Foods. I'm still doing good. I guess I didn't start doing really bad until Sunday.

Sunday went to church, then each did his own thing. Mon I saw the doc, that evening I took Chris to the airport.

Now I'm all up to date, even tho I missed a few days for at least one blog a week.