"Welcome to Houston"

I'm quoting Carrie from our conversation about the weather the other day. She hit the nail on the head! People mock us when we say it is cold and it is 50 degrees, but when is was 80 twelve hours before IT IS COLD!! Wednesday was a high of 81--Thursday our high was 37. This is why my bulbs never make it. Each year this happens and it warms up for a day or two...they think winter's over and start to come up and WHAM! we hit 30 again. Fortunately I watch the weather closely, and had a day to retrieve the kids coats from storage. No one would think I would go back after the Seth clothing and Halloween decoration incidents, but I had no choice. I did not want my children to freeze. But as my life dictates...it was not a simple task.

Next time we rent a storage unit remind me to enroll Jared in Storage 101. How is it that the 3 boxes that I have needed to get to in the past 6 months were each the bottom box in their respective stacks? And in the very back of the unit which means taking everything out to get to these boxes! And when I say stacks I mean 10-12 foot high stacks! Jared did a fabulous job getting everything in there, however, next time we need to evaluate which--if any--of the boxes may need to be accessible. Winter coats and the next sizes of clothing for any of the smaller children would be at the top of that list. Note to self...

Seth has been at his worst the past day. I won't bore you with too many details--except that yesterday morning at 6:45 I hear the clinking of 2 ceramic santa containers. Purchased to give to some teachers. Seth was using them as symbols. When he saw me approaching he got a "Christmas Morning" grin and swung back as far as he could go and hit them together. As you can imagine they exploded on impact. One might think this would frighten a young child--he laughed.

Rachel has her UIL (University Interscholastic League) "number sense" competition tomorrow morning. Those who I went to High School with are probably laughing at this point. She did not get her "skills" from her mother. I had Jared help her go over a few things tonight...there were a lot of tears. Jared is so patient. She would have been wailing if I had been helping her. I will say it is a tricky test. They have to do their solving in their head...no scratch paper. They have 1 hour for 80 problems I think. Here are some examples:

93x94
4005+6899+96
201x159
Which is smaller 3/8 or 0.4?
15% = (fraction)
5.76 hectometers=________millimeters

I will admit I don't know what a hectometer is. I hope she survives without a breakdown.

Today went off without a hitch until about 3 p.m. I read my friend Sarah's blog earlier and she mentioned making potato soup yesterday. So I decided we'd have some today. I got Seth down for a nap and started peeling my potatoes. I only needed 2 for the 4 cups of cubed potato it called for, and when I looked at the peelings in the sink they looked so miniscule that I figured it would be okay to just run them through the disposal. I've been warned not to do this several times. Well, I did it anyway and sure enough the sink clogged. Not wanting to be found out I decided to take the sink apart and fix it myself...before Jared got home of course. Just as I got the last part off...the phone rang. It was the school--Rachel's blood sugar was 39--which is BAD!--and she wanted me to come get her. Now my neighbor who is driving carpool this week was there, but Rachel wanted me. So the sink had to be put on hold. She is fine now.

I guess they were drawing numbers for the 4th Grade spelling bee next week and were told to stay in their seats until their # was collected. She was on the last row. She started feeling bad and stood up to go to the nurses office, but was quickly told to sit back down. She did and waited...to be honest, she's lucky she made it to the nurses office. She's been that low at home before and collapsed unable to get herself up. The problem is...How do you teach your child to be respectful of adults but to make themselves heard when it is important? She is so worried about getting in trouble that she didn't challenge the Assistant Principle when she was told to get back in her seat. Now I love the Assistant Principle, and I know that if she knew why Rachel was getting up she'd have carried her there herself. We've always tried to be careful with her so she didn't learn to use her circumstances for her advantage...but sometimes you have too. Like when I was on my way to the school. The whole drive I was debating in my head whether or not it was okay to butt in line to get there quicker. I knew that there would be many angry moms if they saw me cut in line...I had to remind myself that I don't care what they think. Rachel needed help and that is what was important. I guess it's a good reminder to give people the benefit of the doubt. I remember when she was 2 and 3 and would get low and throw tantrums in the store. I knew it was because she didn't feel good and wanted everyone who was giving me the "you have a bratty kid" look to know she was diabetic. But why is that their business? I vowed I would never judge anyone else like that. I think I'm pretty good about it...unless I'm at the store by myself and don't have my own kids misbehaving...guess I need to work on that.

I'm going to bed. We could literally start hanging meat in our bedroom...it is that cold. This house was not designed well. OUr room is on the north corner of the house...never gets any sunlight and has 4 big windows...and it's off from the rest of the house a bit, so the heat doesn't push through...So Mom and Dad--go ahead and tell Santa that I'm still wearing my socks to bed!!! I don't care!

19 more shopping days until Christmas--I took out the Sunday's!

*Note* when I was a kid Santa used to come to our house each year. (a guy from the bank) His elf was up in the sleigh and he had a walkie-talkie. We'd sit on his lap and he'd radio his elf to see how we'd been that year. Every year I'd hear: "Well, she's been pretty good, but she still wears her socks to bed." Santa would talk to me about not wearing my socks to bed...I'd agree not to and I was off the hook for another year. I never understood why it was such a big deal!