This shall henceforth be known as the "Macbook Air incident"

Last weekend, my MacBook Air started having disk errors, saying that my hard drive was failing. Which, in and of itself, sucks. Especially since we've had these types of things happen to us before, and we've lost LOTS of stuff (pictures, files, etc.) But, we've learned our lesson, and now we have an external HD to back up our main home computer. Up until Christmas, my laptop didn't have an external backup, but Jeff thankfully amended this by getting me one for Christmas. So, all of my email, contacts, websites, files were saved.

But, since the closest Apple store is 2 hours away, getting it fixed required the whole fam to pack up in the car and drive there. They didn't have the part on hand, so they had to send it off. Meaning I was laptop-less all this last week. Which wasn't terrible, just inconvenient. I use a program called 1Password for most sites and programs I use, and since I don't have it on the main Mac downstairs, that meant I couldn't log into a lot of things all week. Thank goodness I hadn't yet done it to my email, cause that would have sucked.

I was fully expecting it to take another few days for my laptop to get back to the store. I had asked if they couldn't just send it directly to my house instead of making me drive all the way back, but they said that it affected quality control, and that they tested everything once it was returned, to make sure everything was completely repaired. I couldn't really argue with that, so I said ok.

They called me yesterday afternoon to let me know it was ready to be picked up. I mentally ran through the days that I might be able to go, and decided Monday would be the best day, since I didn't have school or work, and neither did the kids. I wasn't looking forward to driving out there alone with all the kids, but it seemed the best time. Jeff had other plans, and suggested maybe doing it after dinner last night. The kids would be fed, and hopefully fall asleep early. Plus, he'd said that the snow wasn't going to let up all week, so I'd be driving in my van that needs new tires in not so fun conditions. Again, I agreed that was probably not the best idea. So, we had dinner early, packed the kiddos into the truck, and started on our way.

Normally the girls are pretty happy in the truck; they love riding in it and listening to XM Kids on the satellite radio. Most of the time they fall asleep, allowing Jeff & I to have a little bit of quiet time. This trip? Not so much.

Katie had been whining since we left the house, and I silently wondered if she wasn't feeling well. But, I tried my best to make everyone happy and comfortable as best I could. The weather was atrocious-snow blowing sideways across the freeway, and the traffic was a lot slower than usual. What would normally take us only about 2 hours, was taking closer to 3. About 45 miles from our destination, Katie's stomach had had enough. She proceeded to throw up all over herself and her car-seat. And, by Karmic coincidence, we were NOWHERE near an exit. Both Jeff & Emma have sensitive noses to unappealing smells, so we rolled the windows down slightly to allow for some ventilation. Yeah, we rolled the windows down, in Michigan, in the winter, when it was snowing. But, it was either that or risk there being 2 more people puking in the truck. We had to drive for 10 miles before an exit came up. Poor Katie was so brave, she didn't even cry the entire time. I felt so bad for her; she was a mess.

I would hazard a guess that the temp outside was about 5-6 degrees, without the wind chill. I had to completely strip Katie down (thank goodness I'd brought her & Sarah each another set of clothes), clean her off, and set her in the drivers seat, all while the door was open. Then I had to clean up her seat as much as possible. My small stash of baby wipes was barely enough to get the job done. But, the truck still smelled a bit funky. Jeff to the rescue with a brand new "New Car smell" air freshener. Once everyone was back in their respective seats, we continued on to the Apple store. We only had an hour before it closed, and Jeff was determined to not have this trip be in vain. So we trudged on. We got there about 15 minutes before the store closed, and while he and the girls waited in the truck, I ran inside the mall to go get my computer. It was fixed, I got my paperwork for the repair, and I was heading back out to the truck within 5 minutes. Jeff pulled around, and as I was putting my stuff inside, he said,"Sarah leaked through her pull-up, she needs a change, too." Oy, when it rains, it pours.

So after another set of clothing was changed, we were on our way back home. The kids finally fell asleep about an hour later, and we had about 45 minutes of peace & quiet. I think I should write Apple and use this incident as a reason why Michigan needs another Apple store closer to where I live. Considering how many products we buy from them, it seems only fair.

Update

Well, after starving Sarah all morning in preparation for her being sedated, we get to the docs to find out they had no plans to sedate her. Ugh. So, the poor thing was famished for nothing. I was really worried about whether or not she would sit still for them to get decent pics, and I didn't want to have to go down to Lansing in order for them to IV sedate her. But, with Daddy's help, she did fantastic. They were able to get a good look at her PDA. The cardio said that although her PDA is at a weird angle, he's pretty sure that it's extremely tiny, which means it's shrunk since last check. Which is awesome. He also said that because he couldn't hear it with a stethoscope, that it's considered a "silent" PDA, which doesn't warrant any surgery. Woo Hoo!! He said that they would most likely have to make the hole larger in order to get in there during the heart cath, so we'll just check up on it again in a few years. Phew. I'm very glad that she doesn't have to go through surgery. :)

We then went out with Daddy for a celebratory Burger King lunch, lol. I also decided to be brave (translation: braving the freezing temps) and go get Sarah's new glasses. I had to chuckle at one of the light-up signs on the way home; you know, the ones that show the temp and time, etc. It said it was 77 degrees. I don't know if it was wishful thinking or if it was so cold the machinery has malfunctioned. Either way, it made me laugh.

The sick house

First of all, I want to apologize for my ranting & raving the other day about ultrasounds. I was in the beginnings of a really bad cold & I felt terrible. Now, to top it all off, Emma's sick as well. We're both home sick today. She wasn't able to go to gymnastics last night because of a puking incident in the car on the way home from picking up Jeff, and she was already getting my cold, to make things worse. Plus, school's been canceled again today, so Jeff just took the car to work & we're stuck at home. Which is fine by me, cause I don't feel much like going outside in this weather.
Poor Jeff, he always takes such good care of us when we're sick. While it doesn't happen very often, I'm usually down for the count when I do get sick. And for Emma to be feeling icky as well just makes everything a little harder. Although she's always resilient when it comes to getting better. She doesn't stay sick for long. I hope that's the case this time around. It's a good thing I cleaned up the house yesterday for a showing otherwise it might not get cleaned for a week. The last time I had a cold, I had it for 2 weeks straight. But my doctor said that I can take Sudafed, the lowest dose possible, so I'm taking that route.
This is not how I imagined feeling going into my birthday. I look horrible, I'm starting to get a cold sore, my nose is raw, and I'm generally a snotty, mucousy, drooling mess. If someone came upon me on the street, they might consider institutionalizing me. Or putting me in a leper colony.
As for the weather, yes it has been snowing quite a lot, and at least I'm not the only one to think it's getting a little extreme. Central Michigan University has a newspaper that comes out once a week. Yesterday's edition had an article about the weather on Tuesday & how horrible it was. There was a quote that I thought summed it up quite well. A student said,"I saw one car go into the ditch and I was like,'Hey, remember that one time when they should have canceled classes?' Oh yeah, that's today." Driving conditions were terrible. The campus is only 1 mile away from our house & in the round trip from leaving to go pick up Jeff & coming home, I probably slid on patches of ice about 8 times. A couple times, it was divine intervention that I didn't have any cars in front of me when I started to slide, because I know I would have hit them. I almost slid into the middle of an intersection and many times had to slide around until I could get traction to move forward. Then, once we got on our street, the snow was piled up so high that we almost got stuck, and then poor Jeff had to get out of the car & push it up the driveway. Oh yeah, and then had to go back outside & shovel the drive. He was a popsicle by the time he came back in. Can you tell we're getting a little frustrated with the weather? I'm sure all the people back in CA are laughing their butts off at us, thinking, HAHA, glad it's you & not me. I would be laughing too if the cold hadn't frozen my sense of humor.

Snowed in

Well, another day in Michigan, another day of snow. We're expected to get about 3-5 inches of snow today alone. That's not counting the inch or so we've gotten in the past few days & not including what's bound to be coming later on this week. Now, I like snow as much as anybody, but even Emma's not happy with these latest developments. Her preschool has been cancelled 2 days in a row (last Thursday & today). She doesn't quite understand that even though the snow isn't bad enough to keep us at home, that doesn't guarantee that there will be school. So she's pretty bummed.
I was able to go to my doctor's appointment early today because of the cancellation. So, I was able to take my glucose test, in order to see if I have gestational diabetes. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I didn't have to drink as much of the sugary sweet liquid as I had thought. When I was pregnant with Emma, I had to drink about 10 ounces of this warm, non-carbonated orange drink, and then sit there for an hour, waiting for them to draw my blood. This time, I only had to drink about 5-7 ounces & it was chilled, making it go down a lot easier. As with most pre-natel tests, no news is good news. So if I don't hear anything from the doctor within a couple days, I'm most likely in the clear. Plus, my blood pressure is continuing to stay normal, which is a good sign, since I had high blood pressure during the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Emma. The only grrr portion of my doctor's appointment was that he decided that I can't get my ultrasound (for insurance reasons) for at least another 2 weeks. That's when my next appointment is, and only then will he schedule the ultrasound. Grrrr! I've been promising family members & friends for 2 months that it was going to happen next week. And now he decides to switch it up on me. This is beginning to be ridiculous. All these other people that are pregnant & either due right around the same time as I am or even past me have already found out. Why do I have the stubborn doctors & insurance companies? I'm afraid by the time they actually do it, the baby will be too big to find out, it'll be all wedged up & in the way. Grrr, argh. So much for having plenty of time to get things together & organized. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to find out before my baby shower, or if that's going to have to be postponed. Oh well, such is life.

Can I blame it on "pregnancy brain"?

Ok, ok, I know I've been slacking on this web blog thing. I haven't written in almost a week & I'm starting to receive threats. Ok, not literally, but I've been asked, mostly by Jeff, "Have you written in your blog today?" And I have to hang my head, and say no, I forgot. So I blame it on the baby, who seems to be sucking the brain cells right out of my head at this point. But what will my excuse be after the baby's born? Hmmm, gotta think of something good.
Last Wednesday Emma had her first gymnastics class. Right beforehand, we were running around town trying to find a leotard for her. We went to Target, and we found the one she wanted. She had her choice of 3, and surprisingly, she picked the least gawdy, which I think says a lot for her little 4 year old fashion sense. It's very simple, light pink, no sleeves, with a small pink bow on the front. Very classy. And of course, she HAD to have a bag to go with it, so we went with the Dora bag to put all of her "gymnastics class" paraphernalia in. That generally means a water bottle and a magazine for me to read. But we were both so excited about her first class, that the magazine didn't even get taken out of the bag once.
Once we got to the class (after walking ten minutes in the snow from a parking lot far far away), Emma got changed into her leotard and was ready to go. They gathered all the kids (age 4 to grade 3) and then separated them into their age/grade groups. Emma was so excited that she forgot how old she was & didn't get up when the head instructor called out for the 4 year olds. I had to quietly get her attention & let her know that it was her turn to go. She's in a group with about 6 other little girls, one of whom is our neighbor across the street, Morgan. She immediately started getting social & jumpy, rolling around, jumping up & down, basically not being able to sit still if her life depended on it. Then her group joined with the 5 year olds & they started warming up. They were running in a circle, jumping, skipping, running backwards. Then came the stretching, which I can already tell we're going to need to work on. As flexible as my little Gumby is, I guess she's just not used to doing stretches where her legs needs to be straight. I suppose that will come in time. I also kept having to remind her to pay attention to the instructors, every 5 minutes she was looking for me & giving me a thumbs up, like, everything's cool mom, look at me!
Her class then came right in front of where I was sitting (perfect photo opp, if I had brought my camera, D'OH!) to walk on the balance beam. It was only 3 inches off the ground, so no need to worry about Emma falling & hurting herself. Emma did pretty well, considering she's never done any of this before. I'm thinking though, for next time, maybe I should move to another spot, because I felt like a distraction to her. She kept looking at me & not at what she was doing, which caused her to fall off a lot. There were a couple girls in her group that I know must have older sisters who are in gymnastics, because these girls looked like they'd been practicing for awhile.
After the balance beam, they went over to the uneven bars. They had the girls hang on the top bar for a few seconds, swinging, so they could get the idea of what it feels like. Then they had them start at one end of the bar, and holding on by their hands, scoot themselves over to the other end of the bar. The last trick they had them do was to stand up on the lower bar, grabbing the top one & then flipping themselves over the top bar & drop to the ground. Kinda daring stuff for a first class, but all the girls seemed to do well. I was thinking, this is probably the kind of thing that my little Evil Knievel has been looking for. She's a daredevil at heart. Always has been. Ever since her daddy started throwing her up in the air when she was a baby. And catching her, of course.
After the uneven bars, the class went over & started doing somersaults. Well the rest of the class did, Emma unfortunately doesn't have that natural talent. Her somersaults started out looking like she was plowing the mat with her head. She would get the right stance, looking like an upside-down V, but whenever she tried to push off & flip over onto her back, she just kept pushing herself along the mat on her head. I was worried that she was going to wear a bald spot in her hair before the night was over. Then she kept going sideways, ending up on her side, but she kept plugging along and pretty soon, she got the hang of it. The backwards somersaults were a little easier. They used a giant triangle shaped wedge to help them. They started out at the top part of the wedge & then laid back down an incline and flipped over backwards. A few of the girls seemed like they were a little disoriented when they stood up. I guess that kinda stuff messes with your equalibrium.
After that, the class was finished, and Emma wasn't happy about it. She could have gone on all night if they would have let her. But I finally convinced her that we would be coming back, so I think that worked. I only wish Jeff could have been there, but he'd been in Boston all week. But as soon as he came home on Friday, she was telling him all about it.
I guess the weather finally got to us last week. We've been through days of 10 inches of snow & near white-out conditions, but the snow & cold we got on Wednesday caused all school's to be closed on Thursday. I don't know why, it didn't seem that bad, but hey, I don't make the rules. Emma was really bummed though, because when the public schools get closed, so does her preschool.
We got our pictures back from Wal-Mart yesterday. We had them taken when our friend Deanna was in town earlier this month. They turned out really nice, for the most part. But the one picture that has all 4 of us in it is messed up. They set us up too high & the top part of the picture has the background rolls contraption in it. So we're trying to think of creative ways to cover it up.
I want to say "Happy 50th Anniversary" to Jack & Pat Michelmore. They celebrated it this past Saturday by renewing their vows. Jeff & I wish we could have been there, but we send our warmest thoughts & congratulations.
Well Emma is bugging me to go out in the snow, so I better wrap this up. Until next time.

If it's sunny outside, shouldn't that mean it's warm?

Mother nature loves to play tricks on you in the winter time. It was absolutely gorgeous outside today. I think, I even heard birds chirping. Of course when I opened my garage this morning, I was slapped in the face with the reality that, although it's sunny outside, it doesn't mean it's anywhere near what normal people would consider warm. And now that I think about it, it probably wasn't birds chirping that I heard, it was most likely the squirrels in our trees chattering their buck teeth because of the temperature.
Poor Emma, she had been looking forward to this day. She had been looking forward to going sledding with her preschool class. We even made a last minute trip out to Target last night to look for snow pants & boots. I finally found some (I'm convinced they're the last pair of snow pants that aren't attached to a jacket in the whole town) and thankfully, they were her size. We also found some cute snow boots, that hopefully will still fit her next winter, but I doubt it. She seems to be sprouting once spring arrives (last year she went from a shoe size 9 to a 10 1/2 in 3 months). So we were all set for some sledding fun today. But, unfortunately, the school has a policy that they can't allow the students to go outside when the temperature is below 20 degrees (I believe the high today got up to about 15). But, to make up for it, Emma was able to use her brand new gear after being picked up from school, in our front yard, while I vainly tried to scrape the ice off the driveway with a shovel. I gave up after about 30 minutes, after determining that Emma's greatest joy apparently comes out of throwing snow at me & digging in it like a puppy, spraying it onto the nice clean driveway. So we quit after not too long.
Jeff's already had quite an interesting trip to Boston. His flight was fine, except for some extraordinary turbulence during the landing into Boston. They arrived at their hotel after taking a cab & were looking forward to their first day of training today. Instead, it was a cell phone-forgetting, cab driver calling, email tagging day. To make a long story short, Jeff accidently left his cell phone in the cab this morning on his way to training, thought he had forgot it in the hotel & the cabbie apparently decided to call the most random people on his cell phonebook. He called poor Kimberly, who was awakened by this cabbie at 6am Pacific time, and I think he called our home number, but the message was unintelligible. He also called a friend of Jeff's in Winsconsin, of all places, who called me & left a very amused message on my machine,"Uh, dude, some cabbie in Boston says he has your cell phone, I think you better call it & find out what's going on." All of my calls to the cell phone went unanswered, I'm not sure if he knew how to answer it. So the emailing began, and Jeff & I played email tag for a few hours, until he called me to let me know that yes, he knew where the cell phone was, but no, he couldn't get to it until tomorrow. All the while I'm fielding phone calls from people who are wondering what's going on. It's a national crisis, Jeff doesn't have his cell phone, we might not be able to get in touch with him right this very minute. I actually found the whole scenario quite amusing, but that may just be me. So, if the first day is any indication of how this trip will continue, it should be quite interesting.
Emma starts gymnastics tomorrow night. I went this morning & officially signed her up. She seems very excited about it. It's actually taught by the members of the CMU gymnastics team, so it should be fun. I can't wait to go & take pictures of tons of little girls running around & jumping. I'm sure it'll be a bombardment of "Mommy, mommy, look at meeee!" This reminds me of stories that my mom & aunt tell me about when I was Emma's age. "Look mommy I running, look mommy I jumping!" I think they don't have to heart to tell me the next part, "Look mommy I falling down, look mommy I running into furniture!" Shirley Temple, I wasn't. I think, unfortunately, Emma has inherited my lack of grace. But maybe if we get her started early enough, some of it will rub off on her from the other kids. Or maybe they've invented some sport that ENCOURAGES lack of grace. Actually, I think they have a TV show that personifies that, it's on MTV, and it's called "Jackass". Of course, it also encourages stupid, idiotic behavior that a warning label at the beginning of the show doesn't seem to be able to quell. But that's a whole other tangent that I don't want to get into. Just add that to the list of shows that my very smart husband seems to like, that I can't stand.

Winter wonderland?

Ok, I think Winter finally decided it was time to initiate the Wilsons. All this minor snow & cold has been a preliminary to yesterday. All told, the city of Mount Pleasant received 10 inches of snow. Now I know there are places that get a lot more at once, but we don't live there. We live here, and right now, here sucks. On our street, the snow was piled so high that when I was driving from our driveway to the main street, snow was hitting our front bumper & flying up into my windshield, like we were the snow plow. The snow would melt as it hit our windshield & then freeze to our wipers, making having complete vision out of the windshield impossible. Every time I stopped the car, whether it was to pick up Jeff, go to physical therapy or go home, I had to scrape the ice off the wiper blades. I know before I said I didn't mind the snow, I only minded the freezing temps. I am now revising that statement. I don't mind snow, as long as it doesn't interfere with what I need to do, and I don't mind the cold temps, but I DO mind when they are together, cause that's just not fair.
Even people at Jeff's job are getting in on the fun. Jeff's boss, Shaun, called him yesterday, and politely asked him the loaded question, So, how are you liking the weather? Jeff politely replied, This was NOT in the job description. But our neighbors & Jeff's co-workers are genuinely concerned about how we're taking this kind of weather. Another guy at work, Tony, even offered to come & snow-blow our driveway. But Jeff had already beaten him to it, shoveling his heart out after work. So now I can drive in & out of our garage without slipping & sliding all over the place.
But I guess we can't complain too much about the weather. I mean, we ARE in Michigan, what did we expect? But Emma's loving the snow, she plows through it every chance she gets. Her preschool is having a sled day next Tuesday, so we're going to have to go out & get her a sled and some snow pants, so she doesn't freeze her little butt off. And maybe some boots, too. And thicker gloves. Can't send my kid out sledding looking like I'm neglecting her, can I? I can see the reactions from her teachers now, You sent your kid out sledding in nothing but jeans & tennis shoes? I guess I can't let my only excuse be, Sorry, never done the whole "living in snow" thing before. I don't think that would fly.