A Fun Diversion

I am currently the only person who can drive in the family. Luckily, my trip odometer reset during the "power outage" in the hospital parking lot

http://pullthisblogover.blogspot.com/2008/12/we-interrupt-our-previously-scheduled.html

so I know exactly how many miles I have driven since B broke his leg. So I thought I'd have a poll to guess how many miles I will drive before B is cleared (by me) for him to drive the kids safely around. Feel free to vote and/or guess a number (and maybe I'll send a "prize" to who ever guesses closest)

I will give you some clues to help with guessing
B broke his leg on Dec 17
I was on winter break until Jan 5
The odometer is currently at about 2200 miles since 12/17


Coming soon (maybe)
How many inches (feet) of snow will I have to shovel before spring??

祝你未来的一年里，心想事成。事事如意。

XIN NIAN KUAI LE
Happy Year of the OX

Things are busy here so we will actually be celebrating later this week and I will post the photos then. The kids aren't performing this year so let's go in our way back machine to see last year's performance.

*edited to add- I didn't take the video and it is a little choppy. Those prone to motion sickness have been warned




恭喜发财. Gong xi fa cai!!
Wishing you good fortune and prosperity

The Difference Between

being in the same room with the children and actually supervising the children..... (or what happens when you assume that since someone is sitting on the couch they will actually look at the children)

On the 15th day of Christmas

my true love...
finally posted the Christmas photos.
They don't need much explaining (although if you are wondering why everyone is in long sleeves but K- that would be because she projectile vomited all over everything, including the shirt that is supposed to go under the dress 10 minutes before we had to leave for church)











K thought the best game ever was to be on the floor with wrapping paper on your head. She played with that paper forever. Imagine the money I could have saved on her presents....

There is no Cheese with this Whine

So just when things were "beginning" to start to calm down this week happened. To recap

Monday- K had a positive test for TB. It is likely that she was exposed right before we left Ethiopia. They took a chest xray to make sure it was just an exposure, and not that she has active TB. TB is contagious but hard to catch so they are only concerned with people who live with her. So X and D (after being assured there would be no shots at the doctors) got TB tests placed. A, B and I still need to be tested

Tuesday- to make a long story short- my job share involves 3 teachers, including me. The third teacher abruptly and with no notice to us decided to leave our arrangement. The end result is that my direct job share partner and I now have one job between us and she needs to work full time. Because 8 years ago we chose her classroom, rather than mine, to work in she gets the job back so..... as of now I am unemployed effective the end of the school year. Now my boss assures me that there will be a job and it is mine but she doesn't know where or what situation it will be so there is a chance it is not a job I will be willing to take. Right now there are too many variables to know how this will all end. It could work out very well, but ....

Wednesday- I drag A to the doctor (along with the rest of the crew) only to find out for the first time in the practice's history they are out of the serum for the TB test. On the plus side, X and D tested negative for TB

Thursday- I walked in to the house with the girls late for K's PT appointment when B mentions that the cat has died in the basement. That cat wanted nothing to do with the family the entire time he lived here but for some reason A loves him and as you can imagine A was devastated. The girls don't seem to understand and X was more interested in seeing the body so he came with me to the vet. Our vet was wonderful about preparing the body so it wasn't scary for X.

I think I will just stay in bed tomorrow

An update

BW has his surgery today and is home and back on the couch. Everything went well. However, I have strep throat and not one but THREE sick kids at home..........

Yes we are that insane

Many years ago I had the brilliant idea that since the networks don't show Christmas specials anymore that is would be fun to invite our friends (and their kids) over to watch them on video. We'll pop popcorn and decorate cookies and watch the movies. Yeah, right!- the kids ran off to play and the adults hung out in the kitchen, periodically checking to make sure no one had killed themselves. So the movie party morphed, after that first year, into the annual pajama party. (a party, I might add, that some of the "regulars" begin asking me about in August) The kids wear their jammies and we do still frost cookies but other than that it is mostly organized chaos (and the adults still check periodically to make sure no one has killed themselves) This year we had about 30 kids (and their parents) so it was a busy evening.

Since I don't want to post recognizable photos of kids that aren't mine- here are only a few, although they do convey the spirit of the evening pretty well

Jumping on the trampoline


The boys made a fort of pillows in front of the landing down to the guest room. Their intent was to keep out the girls. However, once they made a barricade in front of the three steps down to the landing they realized they couldn't get in or out either- so they just started jumping over the railing....


The table after the cookie decorating frenzy


(and, of course, now you can find a Christmas special on TV at any given moment from Thanksgiving until Christmas)