Thanksgiving report (I know, lame, but my brain is too fried for a better title :)
Thanksgiving morning
Here I am, in my favorite spot of the airport, the one gate with a bank of electrical outlets underneath the telephones. I still ponder, of all the airports I’ve visited over the last few years, why electrical outlets seem to be more valuable than gold. I appreciate Dallas-Fort Worth’s airport the most, even if the lounge is a sponsored lounge, it is *so* nice to have a place to actually sit comfortably and recharge all your electrical “stuff.” Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, don’t even get me started on Houston, all of them might have one cluster of outlets, but they are on a pole called a charging station (okay, a Samsung charging station, to be exact :) You end up with six people jostling for the spots, when hey, let’s face it, I’m an energy hog at the airport. I need at least two outlets, three or four would be even better, but I won’t get too picky! Besides, I much prefer sitting on the floor - something about the angle of the chairs they have (or stools, in Denver’s airport - there is literally, for an entire terminal, one cluster of outlets and that is it!) that makes my wrists hurt when I type. So it’s comforting to come here and know exactly where my reliable source of energy will be. I still do the look-through around my gate, but they’ve converted all of the pole outlets into european ones, or at least that’s what they look like, so other than the Samsung stations, these are the best alternative. Gate 45, how I love thee!
No internet today, don’t know what’s up. As much as I hate paying the 10.00 for the privilege of an hour of web surfing before I board the plane, like a junkie, I still need it. Today, though, I’m working the withdrawals because it’s just not happening. I guess I shouldn’t have too much of a moment - honestly, what could have happened or what kind of email could I have gotten in the five hours between the time I went to sleep and now? For now, I’m working it old style, typing in Pages and planning to cut and paste later, happy I have my marshmallow ear buds (LOVE these, thanks to Alysha for showing me these, even if she has moved on to some other brand) and listening to the Billboard Top 25 Channel on my Zune. Correction, Ailish’s Zune, but mine is so messed up on the face now, I can’t even tell who’s on it. I know I’ll have to break down and buy my own at some point, but I’ll just work this one for as long as I can. It holds less than mine does, but honestly, it’s another example of how less really is more much of the time. Think about how treasured those pink and white circus cookies are now that we know they are in limited supply with no replenishment? How about from a global perspective? We only protect the animals in danger of extinction. We are finally taking notice of our glacial crisis when they are disappearing. And those poor poor polar bears - I can’t even go there, it breaks my heart. I am doing my part, as much as I can. We long ago converted to flourescent bulbs throughout the house, we are now completely filling our recycling can and have only one kitchen sized bag of trash at the end of every week, and I’m working on getting a leased set of solar panels. I think the demand for them is so high, and our needs are relatively small compared to other customers, we’re low on the list. But this whole concept speaks to everything in our lives. How much value does Kieran put on her clothes when she has more outfits than she could ever possibly wear? I don’t put value on them because I bought them for 80% off. It’s overwhelming to put away her clothes because they barely fit in her drawers. We just went through all of them and had to box up 75% of what she had because her arms, tummy and legs were sticking out of the ends. Actually, she could probably still wear the shirts for awhile, but I have a thing - some might call it a nun-like approach to dressing, but I don’t care - if they raise their arms and I can see skin, it’s gone. Anyway, at first I had a bit of a panic at having to replenish her wardrobe, but she remembered we had a whole box of hand me downs from Brenna, and a friend had also given us some of her daughter’s clothes. In the end, I bought one hooded fleece dress, two shirts and a fleece pull-over from Old Navy, and one pair of jeans from Target. Yes, they were all on sale, but still, they had value, and with a pared down wardrobe, I know she’ll appreciate them more. I think it’s hard for me, because I find these great deals, whether it’s clothing or napkins or home decor, whatever it is, I know how much I paid for them, so then they don’t have any real value to me. I might end up with 20 Christmas Ziploc containers that I paid $3.00 total for, but I have *20 Christmas Ziploc* containers, where 5 might have done the trick. Don’t get me wrong, I use them, actually quite a bit, and when I give them to a friend, I don’t worry that they won’t come back (although they do, because they want refills :), but still, as I’m wrestling through the container cupboard, I wonder if paring back might be a really good idea. Hmmm...it’s something to ponder, especially in today’s economy. The girls will be having a *very* scaled back Christmas this year. In part, because the school has requested that they not get a lot. It’s too overwhelming for them to keep their rooms clean with all of their things, and storage is overflowing at this point. I promised to help them pare down their storage while I’m there this week. But I’ve requested that my Vegas family not send gifts to them, just messages of support - this is tough because the Vegas crowd is usually a big source of the piles of presents. As for us, I do admit to overindulging on the stockings, but I try to keep the gifts to 10 each, but I think we’ll be scaling back to 5. I hope they understand it’s partly due to the lack of toys they want, and for Kieran, she requested the $150 Swim Parka, knowing full well it would most likely be one of the only presents she’d get. I’ve picked up a couple more things, but it’s not much. Brenna wanted an individual DVD player, and that will be the extent of it. Ailish is harder, but she promises she has a list for me now (of course, I wanted it a month ago, but that’s okay). I am not sure how they’ll react, but my hope is that as we scale back, they will appreciate those gifts even more. As for us, I am not exchanging gifts with anyone - with our Florida trip on the heels of Christmas, it just doesn’t seem like we need to spend money on anything else right now. Brad and I both buy what we want when we want it, if it’s in the budget, so why mess with gifts we don’t know if the other will like? I asked Brad’s family to abstain this year, owing to the Florida trip as well, and Sandy and I just agreed we’d have lunch together, that’s enough of a gift. I realized at one point this would mean I would get absolutely nothing for Christmas this year, but it’s okay - I’m still not in a celebratory mode. Even worse than last year or the year before, I am struggling with this whole holiday season. I am happy we’ll be together again, but we’ve been through so much as a family, it just doesn’t seem like we’re around the bend yet.
Speaking of which, I am pondering why I’m still taking this Thanksgiving trip. We’ve been struggling with Brenna’s behavior, but she had managed to pull it back together over the last week. I was really hopeful she could keep it together, and then I got the call Tuesday night. She was restrained twice that night, over what? Oh yes, food again. I talked to her therapist yesterday, and we agreed that she’s not stable enough to go off campus. Yes, of course I will see Ailish, but honestly, I am so disappointed that she couldn’t see the bigger picture. I am still trying to decide how I will handle visiting her. I will see her when I pick Ailish up today (and I hope she doesn’t throw a fit when we leave, even though she already knows the situation), and then we have therapy tomorrow morning, so I will see her then, and therapy again on Monday. But other than that, I am considering not visiting her. I feel like she knew full well the consequences of her actions, and all of her staff was rooting for her, so if she felt it was necessary to throw it all away, why should Ailish and I be punished? (though Ailish was a part of the problem weeks ago, I was assured by staff and her that she did not provoke Brenna on this one). Brad thinks it’s cruel to not visit her, but I just don’t see the point of going out every day and staring at her, trying to come up with something to say. It’s so frustrating to watch her throw it all away. I don’t know, I haven’t quite decided how to handle this.
Thank you to everyone for the comments on my album. It wasn’t a work of art, but I am proud that I got it done, and that I can show it to the girls while I’m there. I’m working on my travel album from 2007 now - hopefully I can wrap that one up pretty soon.
And a brief update on my medical saga - after leaving Urgent Care, I was angry, but I was relieved to know it was something real, something physical that could be fixed. I wanted to make an appointment with the gynecologist that had been recommended to me, but she was not available until 12/19. So I took the first I could, on Monday afternoon. It was scheduled for 3:50, and Kieran’s swim starts at 4:00, so I arranged to have Alysha come to the pool after she got out of class at 4:20. I honestly didn’t think I’d be back in time to pick her up from swim at 5:00. My appointment was on time, and the nurse spent about 5 minutes with me, then I waited 5 more minutes for the doctor. He came in, and immediately began asking me questions about whether I was stressed, anxious or depressed. He asked if I’d been abused, if my marriage was good, and did I have a job outside the home. If I didn’t have the stirrups on the end of the table, I would have thought I was at the psychiatrist’s office, not the gynecologist’s. I was so angry. I explained that this was not in my head, it was a physical issue, well-documented more than once. He said it’s still not big enough for them to treat, unless it’s causing me pain. Well, duh, it is. So then he tells me he’ll put me on Depo Provera to stop my periods - I can’t do hormones with the clotting disorders and Lupus I have, which I reminded him. So then he says the only other option is a laparoscopy, which has its dangers and 40% of the time they find nothing. I said I don’t care, I want them to go in and actually see if anything is in there. He was incredulous. “You understand I could find nothing?” Yup. But I’d rather have a definitive answer than playing around with this for a few more years. And honestly, I just have a hard time with the concept that they’ll find nothing. He did a very painful pelvic as he explained if I just relaxed, it wouldn’t hurt. I was relaxed, it still hurt. Then he said I need an ultrasound and then come back to follow up.
I asked at the front desk if I could follow up with the dr. that was recommended to me, but they said no. I stewed on this for a day, and then decided to call the administration, who was actually very helpful and re-scheduled me with the right dr. We’ll see how this ultrasound goes, and the follow up. Bottom line, I won’t have any more answers until mid-December. In the meantime, my back and side still hurt all the time, but that’s not exactly new - it’s just the knowledge that there’s actually something going on that I think makes the twinges a little more painful.
Back to a happy note - Kieran was pretty funny last night in swim. There are three lanes for her group - the first lane is usually for the 8 and unders, second is for 9-10, and third is for 11-12. Traditional thinking is that the older lanes are faster. She started the practice in her regular first lane, in the back of the pack. By the end of her eight freestyle laps, she was in front of the pack. The coach moved her to the middle lane, which is a good thing, but she started in the back again, which really irritated her. As they were doing drills, she worked her way into the middle, and then they switched to leg drills holding onto the boards, and I knew she’d turn it on. I swear, this kid’s legs are like a turbo engine! I watched the look on her face as she passed each person and ended the night in first place. I’m just so amazed at her - I can swim, but I can’t swim swim. Her moves are becoming more and more fluid with each practice, and I can see the satisfaction she gets out of a good turn, a good start, a good lap. It’s really an amazing thing to watch. I know it’s hard for a lot of kids to handle the crowded lanes, the cutthroat way that kids pass each other - she’s been kicked in the throat, elbowed in the neck, you name it, but she seems to thrive on it. I have no idea where she gets that competitive spirit :)
Kieran and Brad are off to Grammapoppa’s today with the puppies. I know she will have a great time with her cousins, and chances are I would see her for a total of five minutes the whole day, but still, I miss being with her. She and Daddy will more than likely have Rock Band tournaments while I’m gone, which is all good. As long as he gets her to swim on Monday and Tuesday, life will be good!
As for me, I’m going to try to make the best of the situation in Denver, and hope that I don’t have to drive in too much snow :)
November 29
Day three of my adventure in Denver. Everything went amazingly well with the travel itself. Flight left on time, I got a little bit of a nap on the plane, and then, totally expecting a huge line at the car rental, I walked right up to the desk, and was in my car within 20 minutes. I was at the girls’ school by lunchtime. I got to see them both, and we sat down for a few minutes while I explained to Brenna that I wouldn’t be visiting her on campus. I expressed my disappointment that she couldn’t hold it together, and said I wished things could be different, but that was her decision, not mine. After several tearful moments all around, I left with Ailish, but we had to wait until 1:30 to get her things from her cottage because her staff had taken the rest of the girls to lunch, and they wouldn’t be back until after that. So we drove to the store to get the rest of the Thanksgiving goodies, then stopped at McDonald’s for a light lunch before we headed back to get her things. We checked in at the hotel and stocked the kitchen, then went to Boston Market to pick up the meat. I knew I was ordering a lot - unfortunately, I had to because the minimum order was $70 for the holiday, but it wasn’t until the two of us were presented with enough turkey, ham, and rolls to feed 25 that we realized how much we really had. It felt pretty excessive, like I should have found the nearest soup kitchen and dropped off half of it. But we also had vowed not to eat out for the rest of the trip, and to make the most of the food. It was just difficult - even though I know Brenna wouldn’t have eaten tons of it, she would have made a little more headway on it than just the two of us!
Still, we made quite a feast - turkey and ham, cornbread, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, and cranberry salad, Ailish’s favorite.
We gorged ourselves, and between the lack of sleep and the food coma, I was beat by 6:00 p.m. Ailish looked at the Christmas Album, which I brought,
then caught up on the Jon and Kate Plus 8 marathon while we snuggled and I napped. That worked out, until I woke up at 9:00 and was wide awake, even as the night grew later. Of course, the ads on TV were a nonstop bombardment of Black Friday sales. I had fully planned not to shop at all on Black Friday, but as the night wore on, Ailish kept asking me, “Are you sure?” I decided to check online - there was no point getting up early if there was nothing worth buying. I looked up the Denver store hours and realized there was a midnight madness sale at our favorite outlets down the road. Ailish started jumping up and down, and I was like, why not? The only other one we were interested in was Kohls, which was also near the outlets, but they opened at 4 a.m. Ailish decided she really wants a sewing machine for Christmas, and they had one for a steal. So, off we went to the outlets, and everything was going swimmingly until we came to a dead stop two miles from the exit. Honestly, I thought there had been an accident. Nope! Just people going to the outlet mall! Finally, I went around to the next exit and came back on surface streets. Seemed out of the way, but it took way less time than waiting on that exit ramp! Our mission was to get Ailish shoes - she needed new flats and she needed snow boots. We headed to Children’s Place for the first look at shoes - she loves their flats, and I knew they’d be reasonably priced. O....M....G. The line was at least 100 people deep, snaked throughout the store! We found a pair of flats she liked, quickly realized there were no boots in her size, and then I put her in line while I looked through the store for anything else we might want. We got Ailish one sweater and a turtleneck for underneath, a holiday sweater dress, a knit hat for the snow, a long sleeved knit dress, a pair of slippers, and then she spied their stuffed animal for the season, an adorable monkey wearing one of the striped sweaters. She had to have it! I said if she spent her own money, that was fine. I was thinking it was 9.50 to start, so with the Black Friday 20%, it would be 8.50. Actually, it was on sale for 5.00, with Black Friday it was 4.00, plus an extra coupon they gave me, it was 3.40 after all that! For Kieran, we got an adorable striped sweater with the matching snow hat, one other shirt, and a uniform white shirt for 2.00 that will be perfect when she bridges to Juniors next year. For Brenna, two pair of bermuda shorts for next summer that were 2.00 each! All in all, for 14 items, we paid $66, which actually made the hour wait in line worth it :) Next, we tried a couple of shoe stores, but had no luck in the boot department. We found the Gap Outlet, where we got Ailish the most adorable vest (vests are *big* here, I feel a little naked not having one!) - it’s pink satin on one side and faux fur on the other. It was 60% off for Black Friday. That one had no line, woot! And then we stopped at our favorite doggie outlet. No toys, they actually have every single one of the line of toys we like. Just poop bags, which were 60% off for Black Friday. Can’t argue with that! So...less than $100 and two hours later, we were done with the outlets. It was just after 2:00, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew Ailish wanted the sewing machine, and the likelihood of getting it later in the morning was low. So I decided to wait it out in the parking lot. She slept in the back while I kept the car warm. Finally, it was 4 a.m., so I dragged my groggy girl into the store, grabbed the sewing machine, got a pair of mock Uggs for her and for Kieran, and we were out the door by 4:15. I had her in a real bed by 4:30, but it took me another hour to fall asleep. We had to be up at 9:00, though, because we were having therapy in the morning. We made it there, barely :) After therapy, we had the task of getting Brenna’s storage cleaned out. I had heard repeatedly that her storage was overflowing, and though I knew we had given her a lot of Christmas presents last year, I couldn’t imagine what was so much that she was overtaking the storage room. What I found was just...ugh...there are no words. Basically, every time she had a room strip, they would gather everything in a bag and throw it into storage. Totally understandable, but she never went through it. So there were literally bags filled with mostly trash, really, trash, like magazines, paper with scribbles on it, assignments never turned in, behavior reports that were supposed to go somewhere, I’m just not exactly sure where, newspapers, honestly, just *trash*. There were some clothes that were just plain worn out or inappropriate, and I discovered most of those were ones she’d bought herself at the cottage store. Lots of books, which we handed off to Ailish or I set aside to take home to Kieran. Some puzzles, which I set aside for Kieran. And about a million stuffed animals, which she’d bought along the way with her own money. I made her pare down to three and put the rest in a donation box. Ailish tried to help, but Brenna kept screaming at her, so finally I told her to take a break away from us, and we’d finish up. In the end, it took more than three hours, and I had two boxes for donation, one box for home, and three *huge* bags of trash/recycling. I was a little annoyed, I have to say. It’s one thing to go through and figure out what needs to be donated, but quite another to pick through trash. And honestly, there was this implication that she had so much stuff because of us, but nearly all of the things we have gotten her, with the exception of the books which are something she loves and will be passed on to others, were things she kept. Once we eliminated everything else, they were not so overwhelming. Definitely it’s her responsibility for letting it get to room strip status - however, that’s who she’s been since she was born. Her room at home was stripped regularly because she couldn’t keep it together, but I would tell her everything was going in the trash, and she had five minutes to save her most precious things or they would be gone. After that, everything went to trash or donation. And I didn’t go back on my word, so even if she screamed the entire time, she would make sure her precious things didn’t get tossed. I don’t know exactly what the answer is, I just know I don’t feel so terrible about the things I’ve gotten her. However, I was not happy to be dragging all of those things out of the basement on my own (or with Ailish’s help) while she whined behind me that things were too heavy. By the time we finished, my back and hands were killing me, and I told her I was very disappointed about the way she behaved during this project, but I’m not sure that’s going to change anything. Thankfully, the Goodwill donation center is next to Boston Market, so I knew exactly where I was going to drop off the boxes. Then we went back to the hotel for our leftover lunch!
Ailish and I went out to Target Friday afternoon to get her winter boots and gloves. I also picked up a few of the Black Friday DVD’s, since Brenna is getting the player for Christmas, and her birthday is just two weeks later. As we were driving home from Target, we saw a few flurries, which was very exciting, but they seemed to go away as we pulled in to our parking spot. A few hours later though, the snow was coming down in full force! Ailish had been in a flurry before, but this was a whole new ballgame! She was so excited, so we got all her gear on, I grabbed my coat, and out we went to play in the snow. It was so beautiful, the way the snow danced in the air whenever the wind blew. She was giggling like crazy - it was just so special to be there with her in her first snow storm. I know the hotel staff must have thought we were nuts, but it was an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
I took pictures on my little camera, because I was afraid of damaging the big one, so I’ll have to show those when I get home. She made handprints in the snow and drew her name - it was sweet. The Colorado version of our California beach tradition. Once my hair was soaked, we headed back inside to warm up. I got hot cocoa from the hotel store and we sat by the window, drinking cocoa and watching the snow come down. We were glad we had no plans to go anywhere the next day!
Saturday, I woke up at 6:00 for some odd reason, but I got to see the sun rise over the snow, and that was beautiful.
Ailish slept in until 9:00, and then after a breakfast of bagels with pumpkin spice cream cheese (YUM!) we decided to go play in the snow. We got all bundled up again, and headed out. She made a snow angel first, her very first one.
Then we found a hill where she could make a snowman.
She named him SnowBob. It took us some time to find him some eyes and arms and a nose, but we did it.
Then we decided to walk down to the pond about a block away, because it has these beautiful bridges and a gazebo. I had told Ailish the day before that I wanted to take pictures there, but I hadn’t imagined I’d be taking snow pictures (honestly, the forecast was for occasional light snow flurries, nothing like what we’ve seen!). As we walked down, we saw occasional green poop on the ground. I’m thinking, who has a dog out here and why don’t they pick up after him? As we got closer to the pond, the poop was everywhere - we had to tiptoe around it. Then it finally dawned on me - goose poop! Ack!
We made our way as best we could, but I had no idea that geese could produce so much! We walked over to the bridge and found a couple and their two dogs trying to take pictures on a timer, so I offered to take a few shots for them. Then I took several of Ailish before we turned around and headed back to the hotel.
We stopped by to see SnowBob again, and Ailish decided SnowBob needed a hat to warm up.
Once we had to take the hat away, we thought he'd look better with some grass blade hair. We came back to the hotel and had some more leftovers. Then we started going through her Girl Scout journey book. I had bought both of them the age-appropriate journey books, in hopes I could still keep them involved in Girl Scouts. They are still registered, but it’s not the same. I know it’s not anywhere near the troop experience to go through the book alone with me, but I was hoping it would help. Appropriately, Ailish’s focuses on relationships, and how to get past cliques, stereotypes, and frenemies. I thought it was perfect for her, because this is probably one of her biggest issues when it comes to day to day stuff. She provokes and gets her feelings hurt by minor slights, so she’s on both sides of the equation. One of the activities she was supposed to do was to make and write three cards to people she wouldn’t normally talk to, so we headed over to Archivers so she could pick out her supplies. I’ll admit, I grabbed a few things for myself at the same time :) But still, it was fun to see how carefully she picked everything out. Once we got back to the hotel, she worked really hard on making the cards, and they turned out great. Brenna called that night and said she had reached Level I, so she would be able to go off campus the next day. Of course, this news didn’t please Ailish, but it did me! We made plans to pick her up at 10:00 the next morning.
November 30
What’s that about life (or Mother Nature) is what happens when you make other plans? Yeah, Mother Nature laughed at me! She dumped another several inches of snow Saturday night, and it was still snowing when we woke up Sunday morning.
There was *no* way I was taking the freeway to the school, so that meant a 20 minute trip would take more like 45, especially going slowly on all the roads. We called and warned Brenna we would be late, but we would get there! It was a little scary for me, driving in the snow, especially starting from a stop at the lights and feeling the tires trying to get their grip. But finally, we made it to the school, and after a stop at Target to pick up a few things with Brenna’s allowance, we made it back to the hotel in one piece. Whew! The first thing we did was eat (more leftovers, of course - well, leftovers for me and Ailish, Brenna ate oatmeal and potato chips instead!), and then we got all bundled up so the girls could play in the snow together. They had planned to make another snowman, but they were too distracted throwing snowballs at each other to actually accomplish any building projects.
They did stop to make snow angels, though - then we trudged back up to the room to warm up. We mostly hung out that night - Brenna soaked up the TV, and the girls worked on a few scrapbook pages for Grammapoppa. Brenna and I did talk about her behavior and the recent issues she’s had - I am worried she’s going down a self-destructive path that I’ve never seen from her before, and I’m not sure I made much headway in talking to her, but at least I tried. We had agreed after several blow-ups between her and Ailish, and several run-ins with me, that Sunday night would be her only night staying with us. I didn’t want to do that, but I just couldn’t reward her for her difficult behavior. We did get to have a little fun time together, though, after Ailish fell asleep. We played two rousing rounds of Yahtzee, which reminded me of my mom and I and our late night games. That was really fun, and though she lost sleep, I’m glad we did that.
Back at home, Kieran was suffering from the flu :( She had a fever, and was achy and had a stuffy nose. Poor baby! She was most upset about missing swim, of course, but I just told her to get rest and try to feel better.
December 1
This morning, we woke up bright and early in order to get back to the school for Ailish’s quarterly staffing meeting. It was difficult getting everyone moving, especially Brenna - I know partly, she didn’t sleep enough, but also because she didn’t want to go back. I told her when we got to the school that I would pick her up for dinner, which helped a little. We had the meeting, and then I met with Ailish’s therapist for a bit longer afterwards, so we didn’t say goodbye to Brenna until lunchtime. We grabbed some lunch and then spent a good part of the afternoon shopping for some of B’s Christmas presents. Then Ailish told me that her cottage’s VHS player was broken, and they only had a few DVDs. So I decided to get them a new player and a few DVDs, since there were some good DVDs for only 5.00. We dropped those off when we picked Brenna up. At that point, we found out that Ailish had earned a spot on the cheerleading squad, which was an interesting thing to watch as a parent. I knew she had tried out, she had just mentioned it in passing on the first day I was here. But she was instantly overwhelmed by this idea, because all the girls on the cottage were congratulating her. She was nearly frantic with worry by the time we got to the car, saying she hadn’t thought of herself as a cheerleader, she was a drama person, not cheer, and what if she didn’t know what to do? She was almost in a state of panic. I finally asked Brenna not to talk about it anymore, because it was just stirring her up. It was sad to see that though this was definitely something she wanted, getting it was overwhelming. Thankfully, we were able to distract her with our next adventure. We headed to Noodle and Co., but our usual one was what I thought to be too far. I had asked Brad for addresses of the nearest ones - there were three within a few miles, but they all required a left hand turn out of the school, on a busy street during rush hour. So I asked Brenna, didn’t she and Brad go to one nearby going the other direction? She said yeah, definitely, it was just over the hill. Just over the hill was over the hill several times until, 30 minutes in (and when we could have already been at the one I knew about if we’d just headed straight there!), I asked Navi, and she directed us to one 5 miles away. Turned out, it was near an older downtown area, which was beautiful to see, but one of those park on the street areas which was a little jammed. Brenna and Ailish both ordered japanese noodles with tofu. This was the whole reason we came - because I was under the impression Brenna was a vegetarian, and I insisted she get some protein in her. So they get their dishes, and Ailish, who had already eaten it once before, was quite happy with hers. Brenna, on the other hand, did not like the tofu. As the meal progressed, I could tell she was just going to eat the noodles, so I insisted she eat the tofu. She finally cut it into little bits and popped them in like pills. I told her I was sorry but if she was going to be a vegetarian, she was going to have to get used to tofu. She said, “But I’m not a vegetarian!” She just likes tofu normally, but not this time! We managed to finish up, and then I was going to take them to Glacier ice cream, which is the original location of a great ice cream shop near Brad’s office. Unfortunately, the shop was closed - I’m not sure if it’s just for winter or for good, but that was a bummer! We headed to our old stand by, Good Times, for frozen custard. Yummy!
After that, it was time to take Brenna back, which was difficult, and I felt bad interrupting their routine with all of her commotion, bringing everything back in. We said goodbye for the night with the promise I’ll be back to say goodbye today.
When we got back to the hotel, we were faced with the difficult task of weeding things out and packing up. We had to dump the rest of the ham and turkey, which were taking on some funky smells. Cornbread and stuffing, out. Cranberry salad, out. Ailish apologized profusely for not eating it all, but come on, that was a lot of salad! That’s usually for 12! I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to be able to take everything home. I need to find a FedEx store to ship back some of the books, or as a last resort, drop more stuff off at GoodWill.
December 2
Took me forever to fall asleep last night - just hard to think about all of the stuff I need to do today, and to say goodbye to the girls. And then at the same time, I’m trying to prepare myself for the whirlwind when I get back. This week is just insane - I have a Leader meeting on Thursday, when we have our winter meeting, so I need to get refreshments for that. Then, Friday night is out PTSA winter event, which I stupidly volunteered to run - honestly, someone needs to tape my arms down before I go into a meeting! Saturday and Sunday are Kieran’s next meet, then Sunday night, we have a troop meeting for Brenna’s troop. All week, I’ve been fielding calls and emails about the PTSA event, but it’s so hard to manage it from here, especially when I just want to spend time with the girls. The snow will most likely be melted off by the end of today, but they are forecasted to get another blast tomorrow. I’m sorry I’ll miss it!
For now, this is ridiculously long, so I’m going to post and get done packing. Hopefully the goodbyes won’t be too hard since we’ll be back in literally 3 weeks, but I’m sure if will be difficult nonetheless. Still I’m happy I made the trip, and grateful I was able to spend time with both girls, even if it wasn’t the Thanksgiving I’d imagined.
Wow, just reading your post made me tired!!(well, that and the medicine I am taking for a sore throat LOL!!). It sounds like you had a very good trip. I loved seeing the pictures of Ailish playing in the snow. How exciting for her!! I get excited when it snows, too. We had some while I was out Black Friday shopping in the early morning. It sounds like you got some great deals during your Black Friday Midnight Madness trip and "later" on!!!
I hope Kieran gets to feeling better soon :)
Posted by: Robyn :) | December 02, 2008 at 01:32 PM
Okay, my head is a little foggy. I just noticed you had pictures of both your girls in the snow!! Seriously, I think I just skipped over those photos to keep reading!!
Love those pictures, too :)
Posted by: Robyn :) | December 02, 2008 at 01:34 PM
Wow!!! You are a productive person when you hit Denver! :)
Do you think that Brenna hit level 1 so quickly because you didn't see her?
Posted by: Kim | December 04, 2008 at 10:04 AM
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/7c84002e7eac3242c6f1c45795919ccd.htm
Just in case you didn't see it on my other post- Mother's Cookies are alive!
Posted by: Lisa! | December 05, 2008 at 08:11 PM
Do you not realize how we WORRY when you don't post? After your post about your medical issues (I'd want to KILL someone...)my imagination has gone to work. Although... I am temporarily diverted by the good news about Mother's which made me realize that all I had for dinner was two Peeps, and I might need to go downstairs to break out the animal cookies I've been hoarding. : ) It's not that I'm any less worried, just... distracted!
Posted by: Lisa | December 11, 2008 at 01:41 AM