quiet house...for a few hours anyway...

Miss Camille is having a cupcake for breakfast. Jonathan did not want the one we brought him home from the baby shower the other night, so he gave it to Camille, and the girls babysitting her wouldn't let her have it before bed last night, so they left a note on the kitchen table to make sure no one ate it, and she was allowed to eat it for breakfast.

They did fine without me yesterday. Abigail couldn't work Dome because of her knee, so she bought some pizzas and helped here with dinner. She also brought caramel and chocolate syrup for Suzanne's new latte machine, an early birthday present. These guys love making hot drinks, we go through green tea and Chai tea, and coffee and cocoa so fast!

The game was good, Syracuse won again, they are 20 and 0! We get to the stand a few hours before the game starts and make pizzas, prepare the soft pretzels, and make nacho trays. Then we get to take a break, and that's when I usually have my Cookiewich. This time I split it with Audrey, all the yumminess with just half the guilt! We sat down near the floor and watched some of the players warm up. There was a huge noisy crowd, very busy. My niece Audrey and I took turns being cashier and filling drink orders. Five of my older kids were there too, how lucky am I?

Just getting to the Dome is fun. Joseph was the driver of the minivan with Samuel as co-pilot. Emily and I sat in the middle seats, then three of my sister's seven daughters were in the back, Janet, Ellen, and Audrey. We stopped at the DunkinDonuts' drivethrough, and everyone made Joseph ask if it was Free Donut Day. It wasn't. We ordered our drinks, and after each one the lady was like, "Is that all?", and Joe would say, "No, there is one more..." Then he pulled up to the pick-up window too far away....and she forgot one of the coffees, then he handed her back two of the drinks and asked for whipped cream...the line behind us was huge, and that for some reason was hysterically funny. Sometimes I forget that I am OLD.

All the kids went to school today. Mirielle, Aaron and Mali started back to nursing school today. Joseph is starting in the fall, and since he already has finished a year of college with all his pre-recs done, he is home. He is supposed to be finding a job...

I am cold. I wish we had a woodburning stove or a fireplace in the living room, to make it warm and toasty. We have a combination oil/woodburning furnace downstairs - which is nice, we can make a fire in it when oil is low, but the heat rises and heats it only up here, the downstairs is cold and the upstairs is not as cold...when there is a roaring fire it gets warm. There is no roaring fire today. I just ordered 150 gallons of oil, so that should get us through the rest of the winter...

Winter is nice when one can stay in the house. Winter is not nice when one is out of milk and yogurt and fresh fruit and salad fixings. Tomorrow is supposed to be freezing wintry cold again, so it looks like today is the day for going out...blah.

Winter is also not nice when one has EIGHT children who can drive. Now, Samuel and Mali only have their learner's permits, but still. And, to be fair, Benjamin is in Washington state, not here in the snowbelt, but still. I won't even get into my worries about Mr. Ben, who is heading to Afghanistan with the mortar brigade. blah. I won't worry about him, I will not worry, he is still safe and sound here, and God has always had His hand on Benjamin.

Anyway, having my two oldest girls work in the big city and driving in what is sometimes absolutely treacherous weather, oh I have to work on not being anxious.

And Paul is in Ohio, hopefully he will have good traveling weather for coming home in tomorrow.

Dang, I should have kept Sonja or Suze home today to go to the store with me.

I would rather go during the day than leave them after school, after being gone for so long yesterday. See me trying to talk myself into going out today? Hmm, we can live without milk, right?

Okay, the diet/lifestyle thing. My plague, my joy, my obsession...I eat WAY less than I did when I finally put my foot down and changed my slothful ways. And here I am, stuck again. Just eating carefully and exercising every day, and not losing a pound! That would be marvelous if I just had the fifty pounds to lose, but I am still very heavy and need to lose at least fifty more. Right now I would be happy to lose five more! I need to rev it up again, yet I don't want to cut calories more and be in the situation where if I so much as eat a piece of bread I will gain a pound. So more exercise it is...along with keeping my hands off candy and chocolate, which I am getting much better at. Why can't determination itself just burn calories?

Right now I shall go and put in a load of towels, pick up a few things, wash some dishes, do a quick work out, then bring Camille to the store. Sounds easy, right?