Week of Suck: The recap

Well, I'll be glad to see the end of this week.

Let's recap, shall we?

1. Monday, Kelly gets hit in the head with a rock at school. Yes, it's an accident, and she's a brave little trooper, but... Blood! Yay! Scabs!


2. Tuesday wee hours, Nate wakes up unable to breathe. Oh, I forgot to write about this. Or maybe I was blocking it from my brain. There go two or three hours of sleep while I cradle him in the bathroom next to the shower, hoping the steam will help him get some relief.

3. Skip witnesses (and is nearly a victim of) a horrific accident.
He says he's OK, but I can't help but steal glances at him when he thinks I'm not looking. Is he *really* ok? He saw a very gory and violent scene. When my mind wanders, I still think "What if he'd been standing *there* instead of going *here* when that big car did *that*?" Yeah. Active Imagination: The Dark Side.

4. I got an email from my father in law. The subject line had one word: Cancer. He has colon cancer, a tumor that's too big to operate on right now. Ken and I would feel horrified and defeated, except that Fred Sr. has this incredible attitude of hope and gratitude for his long and pain-free life (so far), that it's contagious. But it still sucks.

5. And the icing on the Cake of Suck? I just went into the bathroom, sat down, and the toilet seat broke off and skidded off the bowl, sending me flying. I oughtta sue! *shakes fist at the toilet*

Oddly enough, I still feel like smiling today.

May you all find something to smile about, too.

Oh say, Can You Hear?

Last night, Skip and Nate and Ken took the Caltrain up to the city, so Skip could run out onto the field at the baseball park (PacBell? ATT? SBC? What's it called now? Who's sponsoring the big sign, anyways?) at 7pm and sing the national anthem before the Giants came out to take on the Rockies (we will not speak of the game's results, you hear?)

While Skip was waiting with the other boys to go out onto the field, one of the Rockies came up to him and gave him a little Baseball Quiz, and then handed him one of the balls they were practicing with.

Woot! I loves me a souvenir.

Anyways, while they were up in the city, I was picking Kelly up from her Kids Choir rehearsal, and then going down to church for Band practice. Kelly had a book, and would read (and try to NOT whack her head and split open the rock-hit wound again - yes, again. Seems that part of her head is what usually lands first when she walks into walls. Who knew?). We pulled into the church parking lot at 6:55, and while the rest of the band members were bringing their gear in, I sat in the drivers seat and knit, and listened to KNBR, waiting for them to announce the Singing of the National Anthem.

that's the cool thing about the radio. On TV, if you watch a professional sports game, you RARELY get to see the anthem. Well, maybe you see more in the indoor games, because I seem to remember seeing a lot of "O Canada", but that was hockey, and maybe the CBC is more nit-picky about playing the anthem for the TV audience to see. But on the radio, they ALWAYS play the anthem.

[Oh, what was I knitting? It wasn't socks! I know, you're flabbergasted. But there's an emergency in the Baby Security Blanket world, and I've gotta put on my super-hero cape, and come to the rescue. Maybe I'll take a picture later... if the rain EVER STOPS this morning.]

So I got to sit in my car, and knit, and shed a few Proud Mom Tears when Skip's group was announced, and the singing began. Oh, they sound just so good to my ear, and Kelly sat beside me and said "You know, I think I can hear Skip, even!" which was very kind of her, but was probably not entirely true.

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STAR testing at the schools this week. Skip and Kelly are both writing the tests. They love it, because to them (because they're freaks, apparently) tests are FUN! So this is a fun week. And next week (more tests!) will be fun, too.

For me, it's a nice break, as the testing happens during the hour that I would normally be teaching knitting at the Middle School.

Really, if I was going to take FULL advantage of this break, I'd be doing things like CLEANING MY HOUSE in that hour, instead of frittering it away online.

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Speaking of frittering...

I just spent the last hour trying to bring my littleknits.com online shopping cart contents down to UNDER $200.

I was a little footloose and fancy free as I was tossing stuff INTO the cart, and now I really must show some restraint, seeing as even the richest (and craziest!) knitting person I know really wouldn't buy $500 worth of yarn.

So now my shopping cart is under $200, and I'm trying to justify the contents.

1. This will be a gift for so-and-so.
2. This will be a yarn-gift for the knitting teacher. She'll need some new sock yarn for the summer.
3. This is for a gift that I promised another friend at Christmas. And if I start now, it'll be ready for NEXT Christmas.
4. This is for a KAL (Knit-A-Long) that I want to join.
5. At this price, I *really* should get two of these. I know I'll go through it!
6. Skip wants to take the Textiles Elective track next year, and he'll need this yarn to make his first project.

And so the list goes on....

Really, I should just admit that I have a problem, and move on.

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I think I mentioned in an earlier entry that Skip has discovered High Jump, and is loving every minute of it.

I think I also mentioned that I'd said that he's not going to be winning any awards, but I love that he's just doing something that he enjoys...

Well, he was practicing yesterday (with the 8th graders), and (so the story goes), he clipped the bar with the back of his trailing foot, after going over, knocking the bar down.

The coach says "Too bad you clipped that. If it had stayed up, you'd have had the 6th grade record"

So....

Today, I'm off to find him some light-weight jumping shoes (good GRIEF. my initial typo was 'humping shoes'.! I'm mortified... but not mortified enough to keep that to myself, apparently).

Today, Ken's asking around at work for Skip. Apparently, on the miscellaneous mail board, folks LIKE to hear 'offbeat questions', and so Ken's going to ask if anyone he works with has ever been a high jumping coach. No telling WHAT Skip might be able to accomplish if he actually had a LESSON or two in high jumping.