happy day!

Why is today a happy day, you might ask? Well, I am alive and well, and I am going out and about with Emily Anne, my oldest daughter. Her car is in the shop, so she needs to be picked up. (Apparently, she had a little accident last week, on one of those freezing cold slippery commutes to work, she spun out and hit the guardrail on the highway, thankfully no one came along and hit her while she faced the other way in all the traffic....)

So in a half hour or so, we are going. Kathryn is doing her school work, I have to get Jon going on his stuff.

I am so distracted! Kitty has jumped up here twice, all purring and cuddling, Suri loves kitty so she came over, wagging and putting her cute face up here to be pet. Evelyn and Suzanne are here today because the special college classes they were included in for a few days were terribly boring, according to them, and they would be missing regular classes anyway. So Evelyn is telling me her dream, and Jon is eating his breakfast.

Oh the logistics of having lots of older kids....Samuel has to go to his recruiting office this afternoon, overlapping the time that the rest of the kids have activity club, Paul won't be home yet with the truck, and the big van is taking a much needed vacation, meaning that SOMEONE never got it inspected, so it sat there too long and now...won't start. oops.

Evelyn's iPod is in trouble, it is locked and the password won't work, so she wants me to take her to the Apple store. She also needs to go to the library. Suze wants more yarn like yesterday, because she is knitting and crocheting everything, teaching herself from watching videos. Sonja K. needs stuff for her Egypt project, and her binder broke, and she needs more folders, MOM!

I won't even get into my to-do list, not today. Today I am going out and about with Emily, and everything else can wait.

I have swept and washed all the dishes, and made a failed pumpkin waffle mess. I used coconut flour instead of almond, and I didn't melt the butter, so it just turned into a crumby mixture...when I folded in the whipped egg whites, it just...crumbled. So I tried some in the waffle iron....um, crumbs. I heated up the little frying pan and added a pat of butter....um, crumbs. So I turned on the oven, buttered a pan, and pressed the mixture into it, covered it with chocolate chips, and baked for 20 minutes. Now it's good, but what isn't good covered with chocolate chips? By the way, I ate the failed waffle and the failed pancake mixed up with a light vanilla yogurt.

Our college basketball team is still undefeated! It is good for us, working in concessions, big crowds means more money for fundraising. After I drop Paul off at the airport on Saturday (France again for him, wah.), off I go to work at the Dome again, a really big game. It's interesting working there. The prices are high, and it still kills me to charge $3.75 for a bottle of water. Spectators are not allowed to bring in their own food or drink, or even purses or bags. So if they get hungry, they have to buy the food. It is not healthy food, pizza and nachos and hot dogs and pretzels and popcorn, ice creams, candy, soda, beer and wine. I'm glad the workers are allowed to bring in food, I always pack healthy stuff. We are allowed to get one free item for working, so I usually choose pepperoni pizza....I eat the pepperoni and cheese off it, then throw away the crust. Anyway, putting on an ugly smock and wearing a baseball cap, and working at the Dome isn't too bad. (I do hate when we run out of stuff and customers are like, "Are you SERIOUS?!" One guy was so rude, I actually said to him, "What do you want me to do, I didn't eat it all!")(But the customer is always right, right?)

Now, off I go...