Saturday: phone

I woke up this morning, read a text, started to reply and suddenly my phone stopped responding.  After turning off the screen it wouldn't turn on.

Well, we (and by we, I mostly mean Ben) tried several things to fix it and we couldn't fix it.  So after almost getting new phones from Verizon (but being told different things on-line and in the store) and going to the repair place we decided to pause.  I finally put my phone number on Joshua's phone (Ben's old phone) so that we have a little more time to figure out what we want to do.

It was annoying to spend the day without a phone, but it's also nice to step away from it.  I added the minimum number of apps to Joshua's phone that I need to "survive".

Thursday: karate

 We were practicing knife defense in karate today and at one point I couldn't get the knife out of her hand and said, "oh shoot".  She proceeded to laugh at me, because obviously that is what you would say to a bad guy that was attacking you.

The next moment she was trying to get the knife out of my hand, couldn't do it, and said, "oh shoot".  I laughed pretty hard.

Wednesday: special Mom ability

 Growing up, Mom could always look at me and instantly know if something was wrong.  It was never surprising that she could do this, but it did always feel like magic.

Turns out I have that special touch too.  I think I've had it in the past, but it's been rather obvious since the school year started.  I can tell how Isaac is feeling the instant I pick him up at school.  (To be fair, I can often do this with Ben the second he walks in the door from work.  I would assume with Joshua too, but I haven't noticed it like with Ben and Isaac.)

Nothing has been terrible.  Today the last fifteen minutes of class were not ideal (for reasons with which I agreed and commiserated with him about).  He has a cold.  It's been a weird cold because he's been sick for a two to three days, then he'll be better for five, then the cold will be back for a few days.  He was also feeling a bit overwhelmed with his school work and really sad that he didn't have any time to read at school.

Well, I can take care of one of those needs easily.  He obviously needed a break anyway, so I sent him off to go read with his snack.  When he came out of his room 45 minutes later, he was ready to go.  He progressed well on his school work.  I'm not so sure that it should be overwhelming this week, but he also has two interim tests tomorrow that he isn't looking forward to taking.  There seems to be no study guides for them, so we'll see how they go I guess.

Tuesday: snow

 I came out of work today to go run around town...first to pick up Joshua, then Isaac, then to rock climbing.  But wait a minute!  There was a ton of snow on the ground!  I knew some snow was expected, but I was expecting flurries.

It takes a few minutes longer to get to Joshua than I was hoping, but not too bad.  BUT THEN!  I sat in the parking lot trying to get out for twenty minutes.  I was about ready to strangle someone.  There didn't seem to be the normal traffic directors and everyone was going slow because of the snow and I don't think people were "merging" nicely.  I didn't let anyone cut in ahead of me after the first ten minutes.  I know it was a bit mean but they also weren't trying to get through the line from the very back of the parking lot, letting everyone in.  If I had picked Joshua up the other way I could have been out in ten minutes.  For reference, it usually takes about three minutes.

So I was about a half hour late picking up Isaac by the time I dealt with the slow traffic on the way to get him.  Now, the teachers were super nice about it and the kids were nice about it and I knew he was safe, but I couldn't quite get out of my own head.  Almost.  I almost calmed down, but not quite.

We went to rock climbing and the driving conditions had improved a lot by that time.  Joshua used Isaac's guest pass for the month...he enjoys being belayed due to the fun drops I can give him on the way down.  I don't blame him as I do try to make them fun.

The kids played outside for a little bit before dinner.  They tried to cover up the front window with snow, but it kept sliding off.

Monday: finishing up

I finished up a lot of little things today and it felt good.  I completely finished the little storage room in Operation: Clean the House.  I don't have pictures, but it feels so much better when I walk in there.  Next up, the basement bathroom!  The garage is ready to store the bike that's down there.

A few weeks ago I bought a king sized blanket for our bed to replace one that was currently on there.  We've had that one for so long and it always felt too small: it wouldn't easily cover my shoulders.  It still makes me happy every night when I go to bed.

Sunday: surprises

I woke up today and Joshua declared it was Grey Bear's birthday.  Since I didn't have anything on the calendar, today is now officially Grey Bear's birthday.  We had orange cinnamon rolls since it was a last minute notice.

I was cutting Joshua's hair and we were talking and I forgot to put the #4 thingy on the razor.  So now he has a stripe on the back of his head.  I felt so bad but he was so, so nice about it.  He has a plan if someone asks him about it at school.  We'll give it a week to grow out and next weekend I'll see if I can blend it in better.

We went to visit Grandma at her new home.  Although she isn't super happy about her new place, she did seem to be in good spirits.  We found the piano and she played for a little bit.

Saturday: shots

 We had a mostly normal day today, other than that we got our flu shots.  It was such a little poke.  Isaac and Joshua were both a bit scared, but realized afterwards that it's just the lead-up to it that's the worst.  They did fine.  We also made them give their birthdates for practice.  Apparently it's something we need to practice more.

Afterwards we finally got donuts.  I've struck out the last two times I've tried.

Joshua finished his Lich King (from Minecraft) recently:

...and became a panda?  I was just told to take a picture.