Thursday was F-U-N-N-Y

Thursday afternoon was one funny comment after another on the way to gymnastics.

Taylor was telling me that they wrote poetry at school that day. She said, 'We wrote our name and then made a poem about ourselves with the letters. Here's mine. T is for thankful. A is for awesome. Y is for young. L is for lazy. O is for I forgot what o was for. R is for remembers.'

I said, 'R is for remembers but you forgot O?'

She smiled and said, 'But aren't you glad I was honest and said L is for lazy cause I am!'

Kennedy asked, 'Mom, do you know any Muslims?'

I said, 'Yes, do you?' She had to inquire about who I knew but went on to say there was a young Muslim girl in her G/T class who didn't go to lunch that day because 'she was vasting.'

Yes, she clarified it for me V-A-S-T-I-N-G and that means you don't eat or drink from sun up to sun down because your dad said it's a vasting day.

A November We Will Always Remember

November 2012:

We returned to our home about 6pm October 31 after 6 days away from home.  Most of you recognize the significance of that date.  For us, it was "come home from Disney World day".  For the rest of the neighborhood, it was Halloween.  We did get in on the Trick-or-Treating for about an hour to carry on the Dickerson-Watson tradition of 7 years.  



Sadie, Kennedy, Taylor, Sophie, BADkid

We managed to get everyon in bed at a reasonable hour, and about bout 9PM, I started digging through the piles of notes, mail, backpack junk, etc.  I was happy to find a reminder that SCHOOL PICTURES were on November 1.  Now, I'm not overly concerned with school pictures because my kids are just naturally beautiful.  I'm joking! I don't get worked up about school pictures because we take a million pictures of our kids, and with digital photography, school pictures aren't quite the nightmare that they were years ago.  BUT seriously, who schedules school pictures at an elementary school the day after Halloween?  I'm anxious to see how many of those precious ghosts and ghoblins still have pink, purple, red, orange tints in their hair when the yearbooks are printed and distributed.  

I must say thank you to Aunt Mary for delivering costumes to our front door for the event.  And, thank you a million times over to Mrs.Amanda for bringing taco soup for the family because she knows me well enough to know that I had no idea what my family would eat for dinner the night we arrived home from Florida with kids dying to go Trick-or-Treating and parents so tired that they actually agreed to take them out on the streets!  It is great to be surrounded by people who love us!

Fast Forward a few days to Saturday, November 3.  It's opening weekend at the deer lease.  Yes, that is a national holiday in our house.  Kennedy had two soccer games this day.  Imagine the joy.  First soccer game at 8:30AM in Jacksonville about 40 miles Southwest of Henderson.  Conveniently (dripping with sarcasm) the second soccer game was 20 miles North of Henderson in Kilgore at 12:30.  After two soccer games and a brief tour of the roads of East Texas, Kennedy, Blake and I made it to the deer lease, which is located...you guessed it...60 miles Northeast of our home.  Upon arrival, we found a sickly Taylor.  Taylor loves the deer lease.  However, she was asleep in the travel trailer burning up with fever.  Our weekend at the deer lease quickly evaporated into a road trip back home with Blake and Taylor.  By Wednesday of that week, Taylor was on the mend, but the fever struck down BADkid.



BADkid was sooo sick  :(

On Sunday evening, I was feeling the symptoms too.  By Monday morning, I was sick.  I'm pretty tolerant to "sick" most of the time.  With a husband, 3 dogs, 5 fish, 1 hamster, and a job, who has time to be sick?  But, on Wednesday evening when Chad got home from work, he found me in our bed, in the dark, covered up, crying.  Our neighbor (who shall remain nameless to protect her identity) has family connections to the funeral home in town.  I asked Chad to call mystery neighbor and ask if her dad had anything for euthanasia because I was sure it was going to be a slow, miserable death.  He giggled and thought it was funny that I was so whipped by what we affectionately referred to as "Bubonic Plague".  I recovered and tried to work the rest of the week because I avoid taking sick days so that I can enjoy days in NYC and Walt Disney World (which will be getting posts soon). 

Although I was better by Friday, BADkid appeared to be taking on round #2 of the illness, so I took her to the doctor.  We saw Santa before the appointment with the doctor.  She was so excited to see him, but felt so bad.  He came over to her and said, "Ho, ho, ho!"  She grinned and then a single tear rolled down her cheek.  She was so weak. 

One single tear



She's grinning while spinning pennies,
but doesn't have her usual sparkle

The Pediatrician assured me that it was not the Bubonic Plague, but I'm still skeptical.  I lived through it.  It was some kind of plague. 

While everyone was under the weather, we played in the house a lot.  Often that involved the phone taking pictures and videos.  Here's a video of the silly girl who likes grapes, but doesn't like the texture of most fruits.

Friday, Chad was supposed to go from work to the deer lease for the weekend.  About 30 minutes before the end of his work day (and 90 minutes before his usual arrival home), "Mr. Giggle when someone is sick" came stumbling in the door.  I'm not heartless, but let me just admit that I had a small grin and felt tiny tingle of justice when I saw how bad he looked and sounded.  I did manage to compose myself and refrain from releasing an evil cackle every single time he moaned or complained about being sick.  It was a rough weekend, and on Sunday he was talking emergency clinic.  Fortunately, he did not die Sunday night when his frugal wife shrieked at the idea of an emergency clinic when his doctor's office would be open in less than 12 hours. 

Bob's weekend hunting trip ended here

Monday was the beginning of returning to normal. It was a slower process for Chad.  I'm guessing it's his advanced age?  Who knows. By Thanksgiving Day, he was presentable, but sounded terrible and everyone was hesitant to get too close.

The last 5 days of November we were all healthy at the very same time.  It was miraculous!  It has definitely been a November to Forget!  But through it all, I have to be thankful that no one was sick during the 2 out of state trips in October, and everyone was well before I had to go out of town for work the last 3 days of November. 

Here's to a Healthy Dickerson December!