the uphill battle

Hi! If anyone missed me, I'm back online. As Jim Anchower says... "Been a long time since I rapped at ya."

Hope everyone had a great holiday. Mine didn't go quite as expected, but what ever does? I'll put it all in bullet point form for you after the jump.

(1) Christmas Day - supposed to go to Iowa to see Mom and Grandma, but Mom wasn't quite ready for us and Tim had to work Friday. So we stuck around and went sledding. Not what I'm used to, but it was nice and relaxing.

(2) Mollie and Olivia drove up through an ice storm the next day - and we all got together in Iowa on Saturday. Mollie fell UP the stairs at mom's house on Saturday, not breaking her foot but spraining it so bad she still can't walk right today. It was seriously nasty. That same day I opened a hot pink rabbit fur vest from my mom. Not as heinous as Mollie's foot injury - but close.

(3) Olivia woke up on Sunday with a puffy eyelid. Her mom knew what it was, called in a prescription and we headed to Sioux Falls. By 5pm we had her in Urgent Care clinic as she was no longer able to open the eye. They admitted her to the hospital for IV antibiotics - where she stayed for nearly 3 days. Not exactly the vacation they had planned!

(4) The night before Mollie and Liv came home from the hospital Tim's mother fell on the ice and gashed her head - resulting in a ambulance trip to Montevideo, Minnesota hospital. Tim drove at midnight, arrived at 3am, and took her back to her house. The next day he brought her to Sioux Falls because she can't see the back of her head and someone has to clean it, etc. So now she's here and people keep saying "WOUND" all the time. That is such a sucky word. I wish they'd just say "owie" or something.

(5) On New Year's Eve we had no illusions of fun - Moll and Liv were taking off for Illinois in the morning - but it still sucked when Ab puked spaghetti-vomit all over her room. Right after kissing Olivia goodnight ON THE LIPS. Good thing the kid is still on nuclear antibiotics. Nothing got through there, and she never got sick.

As for the spaghetti vomit - I recommend cleaning with laundry detergent, then rinsing with 1/2 cup vinegar to 2 cups warm water, then rinsing with clean water. It really works and didn't even smell the next day. A New Year's Miracle!

(6) Mollie took off on New Year's Day and drove 12 hours with a bad foot back to Illinois - then to St. Louis doc the next day to find out she's having TWINS!!!

So that's the last unexpected thing of the whole season. I'll have two new nieces or nephews or one of each to spoil by the end of August. All in all - not at all normal, but pretty memorable nonetheless.

Can't wait to get back to work on Monday, get the kids back to school, and settle back into some NORMAL. Oh, and start planning my trips to Illinois to help out with those babies.

Here are a few pictures: