so much to learn....

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I mean, Samuel is home on leave! There was coffee! It was pouring rain outside, and the Christmas lights were twinkling in here! Aside from the fact that the dr. office STILL hadn't heard from the hospital about my scan, it was a fine day indeed.

Then the phone rang...it was the dr. office...just telling me that they hadn't heard yet, but would be calling the hospital again to see what was going on. I found my heart pounding, my hands shaking. This is ridiculous. Either something's wrong, or it isn't. There's not a stinking thing I can do about it.

Emily, our oldest daughter, came over to bring Miss Evelyn to a bookstore downtown. Samuel was fine staying home, but some of the other girls wanted to do something, so they tagged along with Em and Ev...Kathryn, Suzanne, and Sonja joined them. They dropped Jonathan off at his friend's house, so that left me here with only Joseph, who doesn't count because he was working in his room, and Miss Char and Miss Cam...they wanted to do something fun, but I was expecting that dreaded phone call...I pictured myself driving and my phone ringing, and having to pull over....so we stayed here and had fun instead.

We got out the beads and made bracelets. Then we had a warm yummy lunch (mine wasn't as yummy as theirs'). Then 4:30 hit, the dr. office was closed, I wasn't getting a call, so we left for town, to get a new Redbox movie. Then to the little grocery store there for ice cream, sprinkles, and hot fudge. (no, I didn't have any). By then Paul was home, then the older kids all stomped back in the door...they had gone out for Thai food, and weren't hungry for dinner. We had such a late lunch, we weren't hungry either. So Paul just had a huge salad and a leftover burger from the other day, all by his lonesome.:)

We got some snow last night, which changed over to freezing rain. It's icy out there. I went out with the dogs this morning...

Winter...it's lovely from the windows, but driving in it is not fun. Nine of my kids are licensed drivers now, and two have their permits. So I don't stay up and worry every night, but it concerns me when they drive in bad weather, because every mom knows their kids do not know how to drive. I remember hitting those invisible brakes.

The bad labradors are on the couch they aren't allowed on. Charlotte Claire just came down the hall, and Suri started wagging that tail! Duke is old. He is sleeping so deeply we have to check and see if he's still breathing sometimes. We ask, "Do you want to go out? Want to go out?!", and he just wakes up and lies there considering, and more often than not, decides that no, he doesn't care to go out, actually, and puts his head back down on his paws, and sighs a deep sigh. Poor Duke.

I want this week to go by sloooowly. The kids are on vacation, Sam's here, and next week, Aaron's leaving for California. He's supposed to come over this afternoon to bring us some of his apartment furniture. wah. I am SO going to visit him though. I have never been to California, and it's high time I did. ha.

There's a yummy beef stew in the fridge, that I made on Sunday, and a turkey thawing for tomorrow. When it's dismally overcast and rainy and snowy and chilly, it's nice to have those winter-y foods. I've been buying special things they don't usually get, like chips and dips, and soda. I drink diet soda a few times a week, but prefer water. And coffee, of course. And hot tea in the evenings. There's the matter of all the Christmas chocolate I received...I just want to eat it all. Milk chocolate assortment...chocolates from around the world...

And these from Sam. 1260 calories. For the whole jar, of course. He told me to save them and open them sometime later, when there aren't so many people around, which we all know is a recipe for disaster. It is clearly a one serving jar, ha.

Kids are getting up and about, we are on a late vacation schedule...so there are things to do, laundry to switch, breakfast to see to....