Almost Spring - Almost Spring?

Seems like it takes a sick day for me to catch up on posting. It's also because blogger takes so long to post to - have to switch to Wordpress. Anyway, Shara's home sick today and yesterday. Fever, stomach ache, etc. She's on the mend and should be able to get to the dress rehearsal tonight.
----------------------------------------
Here in NE it hasn't been very spring-like. Luckily we get the beautiful daffodils and I know the warmer weather is coming soon. Shara seems to be having a pretty easy time of Alan not living here and she enjoys her Friday night sleepovers but doesn't feel the need to stay over more nights just yet. I don't think she has a sense of too much of a difference in our basic lifestyle. Alan still picks her up from Tina's after school almost every day, takes her to dance, we act the same as always at church and church & family functions, we try to have family night each week...  Other than what Alan does when he's not here, it's pretty much the same. She never saw him in the morning, other than a quick goodbye. Dinnertime is the biggest change. We used to sit down to family dinner almost every night, which is pretty unusual these days. Our eating habits have gotten pretty bad. I hardly cook anymore - in fact, I don't even know what we eat normally. I don't think we've settled into any normal. Maybe this summer we'll figure that out.

Here's what we've been up to:
Shara & Kat making a fleece blanket together, during Winter vacation.

---

Our first family night - dinner from Lawdessa, the new Middle Eastern restaurant. Alan & Shara dressing up for dinner.

---

Valentine's Day at Bubbe's

Shara frosting the best ever chocolate cake!

---

Wielding scissors of unusual size - for the Hive grand opening

---

Voodoo Donuts from my trip to Portland for a work conference. Alan stayed home with Shara for the few days. I didn't come back with donuts looking as fresh as these, but what I did bring back make it for the trip in my suitcase. I was surprised they melted. I thought they'd be crushed, but weren't. The three of us stood over the smaller box and gobbled them all up rather quickly.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Went to visit Bubbe for Passover

lunch at the Troy farmer's market w/ Aunt Jill:

Easter at Oma & Jidor's - never too old for a good egg hunt. Auntie Chrissy did a good job hiding this year! Took Shara quite a while to find them all. I got cold and left the hunt a little early. It was a nice family day.


We hosted a Circle Dinner on 4/18. It was a lovely time and nice to get to know church members who we see and chat with all the time but never have a chance to have a real conversation. Shara had fun entertaining the kids. They're really energetic and smart and we appreciated that Shara enjoyed the responsibility of playing with them.

Patriot's Day - A day at the MOS - Shara studied the Maya this year and we got a membership and had a great day going back in history but the highlight was the Planetarium. Can't wait to go again.

Winter 2015

A lot has been happening around here, much of it giving me a good excuse for slacking in updates. This whole year has been pretty bad about updating, but I don't think I've ever gone two months before. So here's what's been going on. The biggest change is Alan moved into an apartment. It's fairly close and he sees Shara almost daily and has her for an overnight weekly. We try to have a family event each week, though he's only been gone just over 2 weeks. We also see each other at church on Sundays. Shara seems to be doing well and knows her parents love her very much. The biggest change is not having Alan at dinner and him not saying good night in person.

Shara's still doing hip hop at dance and started rehearsals for The Wizard of Oz, which she auditioned for and was thrilled to join the cast. Here's a photo:

Shara's the one with the orange flower, standing in front of the wizard?

Tuesday (2/24) we tried the new Lebanese restaurant that opened very close to us. Shara had what was supposed to be a lamb shawarama salad w/ hummus & tabouleh. There was just some shredded lamb on a nice salad but no hummus or tabouleh. I got the falafel salad plate, and that was very good. So good that Shara ate that instead. Alan got the mixed grill shish kabob.

Sunday, 2/22 we had a special event at church. Don't Forget Us, Pet Us came to show us some of their rescue animals. It was a very nice time and some of the kids commented it was the best church day ever.

Saturday 2/21 a group of us went to Taza Chocolate for a tour and way too much chocolate! The tour was so interesting, especially because I've been playing with the food mill and hearing about the stone ground chocolate process was made me wonder what it would be like to grind chocolate at home.

Here's a selfie of us with our hair nets - very attractive!

The rest of the week was pretty mundane. I spend much time getting ready for the stewardship gathering - cooking & freezing, straightening, etc. Shara spent both Friday & Saturday night with Alan. Auntie Chrissy went over and they made pizza and had a sleepover then on Sunday Shara went to Hannah's birthday party, which was a trip to the mall and build a bear. She had a great time, of course! Then Shara got sick with the same respiratory virus a lot of people seem to be getting. Alan took her to the doctors and she had an inhaler for 3 days and was already better that night. She went to the Oz rehearsal and back to school the next day, which was the Stewardship Gathering. Shara stole the show - an interpretation to a reading of "The Hungry Caterpillar". She was great. I was very impressed with her facial expressions showing the caterpillar eating and the use of construction paper to fashion the caterpillar legs was quite ingenious.
Friday evening Kat came over for dinner and an evening Shara-sitting. Shara made them both burgers and they watched "Once Upon a Time". Kat fell asleep on the couch and in general they had a lovely evening.

I Feel Good

I'm hoping that's what I'm going to hear when I wake Shara up in a few minutes. The last two days she's had a bad headache - sinuses, and wasn't able to go to school. When I got home from work last night she was her normal self. When she went to bed she wasn't, but I think she was just really tired. Fingers crossed.

Springtime!

It's starting to warm up outside, and we've been having a nice time noticing the days getting longer. At the beginning of the month was the Blessing of the Animals service. Shara brought in Beautiful, her FurReal dog. She had Alan get the pet carrier down from the attic so she could carry her in it. We had a good time celebrating Jidor's birthday at the Rao's. Lots of activities are also marking the change in season - MCAS for one. Shara took the reading (ELA) tests and thinks she did fine. She missed the second one because she was out of school for a few days. Two because of a fever, cough and generally feeling rotten. The third for a visit to Bubbe's for Pasach (Passover). It was a very quick trip - just one day, but we got to spend the whole day with Bubbe and help her get ready for the sedar. We were also lucky enough to see some cousins we don't get a chance to see too often.

Shara (Alan too) been troopers dealing with mommy's busy schedule. Part of me thinks Shara likes all the craziness. I know she likes having people over. There were two occasions, both church related. One was a house meeting, where we conducted a bit of brainstorming on our church future, basically. The other was a meeting/party for members of church who the stewardship committee identified as being a good foundation to kick off the annual pledge drive fundraising. She's such a good kid, there's no issue having her attend an adult function. She isn't silent, but really behaves herself. She also has a good time telling stories and pretending. She's looking forward to April Fool's Day and tricking someone somehow.

So what else? A couple of days ago there was a bee in the lunch room and apparently freaked out the kids at Shara's table. The story started as a swarm of  bees, but turned out to be one, though there could have been lots more and what if...? The third graders had a talk from the principal about making too much noise during MCAS and were told how they were expected to behave - apparently they hadn't been the best behaved kids, so needed to be reminded.

Green Eggs & Ham (Dr. Seuss' Birthday)

Shara & Brutus, asleep in mommy & daddy's bed

Better kid

Shara woke up and said, "take my temperature" and it was 98.2. She's in the office on her computer, coughing still but feeling normal, which is what we want. She's very happy about being better.

She came into the office from watching TV, needing to immediately look up the Glow Pillow she saw on TV before it left her mind. Then we discussed how we could probably make the pillow but she said no, she needed to get this one that we wouldn't be able to do it as well. I talked her into waiting a little before getting it so she could see if she really wanted it or not. If she wants it that bad, she'll remember, right?

Sick Kid

Last night Shara was complaining of a bad sore throat. She's been having them but we think it is allergy related because it seems to happen when the temperature goes up. This one isn't that. She didn't have a fever but it was dance today and she didn't seem to care. She stayed home and watched tv most of the day, then we played some board games before dinner. She was getting more and more congested before we ate so after Alan went to the drug store and got some medicine and stuff for her throat. I had given her throat coat tea in the morning, which seemed to help and she drank quite a bit, for her, during the day. Didn't eat a ton, but she wasn't doing much more than laying around. So tonight she was seeming the same and on a scale of 0-10, her sore throat was a 4, but then she mentioned a headache and yup, she has a fever - 101.7, and at night, so Tylenol should do the trick, but tomorrow she'll stay home with Alan and hopefully will get better soon.

Sedona Winter Vacation - Travel Day

The first thing Alan made sure of when I was looking at flights was that we don't take the red eye or have to get up at 3 AM. That's why this morning we were able to have a normal morning and finish up packing the toiletries, check that we had everything and eat breakfast at a fairly leisurely rate. We had no trouble getting to the airport, park and go through the short and efficient security at the Southwest gate. I promised Shara if she ate her banana she could have a coffee drink, so she selected the iced nonfat decaf caramel swirl latte from Dunkins. She said she liked it but Alan tasted it and thought it was strong. When I tasted it after a little bit, I found they either forgot the sugar or put in the caramel flavor (I don't think so, but giving them the benefit of the doubt). So after we had them add the swirl, and boy did they make up for not putting it in in the first place! it was much better.

We got lunch during our 1 hour layover in Chicago at Potbelly's. I had a turkey/cheese skinny with hot peppers and tomatoes, Shara had a ham and cheese skinny w/ nothing, and Alan had a Wreck (lots o'meat). The peppers were oil marinated jalapenos and boy were they good! Alan's going to finish the rest of Shara's sandwich sometime on this trip, and though it spent 4 hours on a plane and 3 hours more until it got in the refrigerator, he'll be fine!

The plane trip to Chicago and then on to Phoenix was smooth, but Shara's ears hurt a lot for the Chicago leg and then her teeth for the Phoenix end. She was such a big girl about it though. She was trying so hard not to cry and at the end, took a nice little nap to get through it. The time not napping was spent playing on phones and doing games from an invisible ink book. My favorite when I was a kid. I used to call them "yes and no books", but there are all sorts of themes. When we landed in Phoenix, we picked up our luggage and made our way to get the car. Shara was very impressed, as were we, with the rental process. They consolidated all the rental car companies into one building and they all share a shuttle system. Once in the building you go to your companies store, which is what it looks like - big alcoves in a circle. We finished the process pretty quickly using their new kiosks, then went downstairs to the garage and picked out our car. Shara was really excited about seeing all the different cars. We took the one with the biggest trunk.

On the way to the resort, we got to see all the cool Saguaro cacti and an amazing sunset. Our ears really popped going up the mountains to get to our current 4000 feet or so. The 2 hour drive seemed to take almost no time but at the end we were all tired and hungry and dehydrated. After a simple checkin, we stayed parked near the lobby and walked over to the resorts restaurant for what turned out to be a fantastic meal. I don't think it was because we were so hungry. I had the salmon with artichoke/caper salsa, au gratin potatoes, cauliflower au gratin, buttered edamame and sugar snap peas, roasted beets, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms, and homemade sour dough bread. There was certainly enough butter on everything, but it was also seasoned very well. The mushrooms had some spiciness to them and the other vegetables were super sweet and fresh. They promote local, organic products. Unfortunately, they aren't as well known as some other places, so I'll be writing a few reviews in favor of them. Alan had salad and skirt steak with the same sides and Shara had a cheese burger, homemade potato chips and some of Alan's salad.

After dinner we went to our room. Before entering the teeny cottage we looked up and saw an amazing display of stars. It was our first Sedona awe inspired moment. The cottage is very well equipped and even came with complimentary candy and hot chocolate packets. The only issue is the size. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in the arm chair, with my chair facing the pulled out couch, only three inches from my legs. Alan decided to sleep on the couch last night (2nd night) because Shara coughed in his face and pushed him all over the night before. We didn't think there would be a way to pull out the couch without moving the furniture out of the cottage. The empty luggage is even back in the trunk. The first night of sleeping was the three of us in a queen sized bed. And Shara was all over the place and coughing and Alan was snoring and none of us were very happy.

Pink is nice, but not in the eye

I was in the middle of a conference call today and the school calls to say that Shara has pink eye. Well thanks to Mrs. Ross paying good attention, it was caught before Shara had much pain. I picked her up and we were able to get to the doctors and get the prescription filled. On the way, we stopped at D'angelo's to pick up a couple of sandwiches. In the car I confessed to Shara that I was pretty nervous about putting the ointment in her eye. I was concerned I'd put it in wrong, make a mess, put in too much, etc. She totally understood because she gets the same way too. So we became partners in this venture and before we ate, we went into the bathroom and she held her eye open, looked up and I put in the goo. Then she yelled, "ow, ow!". I asked if it hurt and she said no, so I told her to stop yelling and she did. We then enjoyed a great lunch and will most assuredly be frequenting D'angelo's again.

Sick, again?

Yesterday she woke up about 5 am not being able to sit up - her stomach hurt, so I thought it was her abs, since we were hoola hooping saturday. I gave her some motrin.  Later in the afternoon she had a headache, so gave her Tylenol, and all the time I was masking a fever. Didn't find out until bedtime I was masking a fever - 102. Today it's down to 99.6 and she's still headachy, but seems happy. We may do a craft project later.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Shara lost her tooth!

Last night Shara woke us up to let us know she lost her tooth. It was bothering her when she went to take a drink of water so she pulled a little and it came right out!

She's also feeling much better, though when we took her temp last night, it was 103.7. Didn't scare me as much as the night before that when she was practically hallucinating. Last night she was acting fine except that her stomach was still bothering her. This morning it's down to 99.7, so I suspect tomorrow everyone will be back to their normal schedule. Alan's home with her today.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Seems to be getting better

2/14 -Laying in bed with sick shara, who somehow had enough energy to not be able to get to sleep. Fever and stomach ache. Felt so bad she had to miss valentines day at school: Yesterday at 8:25pm via Mobile Web · Friends of Friends ·LikeUnlike · · View Feedback (5)Hide Feedback (5).

Erin Lynch Hegarty Oh, that stinks missing Valentine's Day :( We had the exact same bug come through our house last week .. not fun but seems to pass pretty quickly. Hope she's better soon !: Yesterday at 8:33pm · LikeUnlike.

Laurie Lessner And square one art tomorrow. I assured her there were lots of other kids missing today. When I called the school they said it's going around. I didn't know u had it too.: Yesterday at 8:38pm · LikeUnlike.

Lori Tunewicz-Gavin ‎:( Very sad.: Yesterday at 8:45pm · LikeUnlike.

Jill Lessner Looker Laurie- give Shara a kiss for me, I hope she feel better soon. It is not easy to miss out on the fun events :( 21 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

Toni Leverone hope she's better today 14 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

--------------------
All hail the family bed. Yesterday at 8:49pm · Friends of Friends ·LikeUnlike · · View Feedback (4)Hide Feedback (4)
Lori Tunewicz-Gavin Been there for 11 years straight! At least it isn't cold. :) 21 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

Karen Reed Messing Always thought it's a good idea. People against it do feel strongly, though. Don't buy their rationales. 13 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

Lori Tunewicz-Gavin I think our culture is one of the few that has people against it. It is the norm in most of the world. It has always been the right thing for me. I'm too anxious otherwise. Especially when they're sick. Hope Shara's better today. 12 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

Laurie Lessner Well when shara's sick, it makes me more comfortable too. I'd worry all night about her. 12 hours ago · LikeUnlike.
---------------------------
2/15 - cream of wheat - the wonder food 11 hours ago · Friends of Friends ·LikeUnlike · · View Feedback (8)Hide Feedback (8)
Lisa Colosimo, Wendylove Williams MacRoberts and Jorj Pitter like this..

Kristin Almeida Slater Shara still not feeling well? 10 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

Laurie Lessner no, she's eating some oatmeal now. Had a couple of bites of the cream of wheat, but didn't like it enough to continue. She has kept all of this down and is now chatting quite a bit. Fever still at 102 this morning, but certainly cheerier now that she's had some food in her. 10 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

Olivia Melo poor Shara :( feel better soon, and wishing you well Mamma! 9 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

Jill Lessner Looker Glad that she is on the mend, I hope that she gets all better quickly. about an hour ago · LikeUnlike.

Laurie Lessner she still has a fever, but she's acting better. Ate a good dinner. Has a sense of humor. Last night was a little scary for all of us - scary dreams and not all while she was sleeping. No signs of that tonight. She's sleeping with us again - Alan and her are already up there. I'm having a few moments of laurie-time.

Thank you to all who have been sending your wishes for a quick recovery. I pass these along to Shara and I think it makes her feel better. Neither of us can complain too much though. We're so lucky that we go through this very infrequently. Tonight she commented that being sick is sort of fun. I've been telling her that she doesn't need to show me she's sick - the thermometer tells me that and if she wants to be happy, be happy. She still can't go to school tomorrow!

Sick Day

Yesterday Shara and I had another nice day together. I was a volunteer at school for their Square One Art program. She went to school on the bus and then I went to her classroom. The program lasted about 1.5 hours and then I went back home to do a little work and Shara stayed to finish her day in Kindergarten. We didn't want her to miss letters or calendar or the other important learning activities. I picked her back up and we went out to lunch at Unos. It was actually very good. I had a salad and Shara had the mac & cheese. The portions were just right for lunch and they even gave her an apple upon request. We also got dessert - they have small dessert options which were hardly small but much less than the normal size. After that we picked up some yarn at the craft store then dropped off the clothes I had in the back from cleaning out my closet last week. The Salvation Army folks at the new location in Westgate were great. They came and took the bags out of the car and were very thankful for our donations. We then went home and I was on email while we watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".

This morning things seemed normal. I had been up 1/2 the night with a horrible headache - sinuses again, but Shara seemed fine. I was thinking that if I hadn't taken yesterday off I would call in sick today. Well Shara started complaining of a stomach ache and I told her to see how she felt after breakfast. We didn't get to breakfast. She hadn't even gotten dressed yet when she got sick. She was right near the bathroom because I was getting her out a pepto tablet, so there wasn't too much of a mess. I think we were both pretty shaky after though. She's sleeping now, after eating a couple bites of toast. This is the first time she's been sick in a really long time and she's not liking it at all. I'm hoping that the way I'm feeling is just more sinus trouble because I feel lousy as well. So I see the rest of our day being rather low-key.

Yes - ear infection

We took Shara to the doctor yesterday and she does have an ear infection. What I didn't realize is that she hasn't had one for a long time. I can't remember the month she said, but it was 2007. And this was a strain of the flu that's going around, but luckily she missed almost all of the symptoms. Shara was nervous about getting a shot, but was assured there wouldn't be one this time. We didn't mention next time! So she's taking antibiotics and slept all last night without even having any Motrin. She did have a little tough time falling asleep and got up about 8:45 and told Alan she had a dream about a bear smooshing her and eating her. But then went back to bed easily for the rest of the night and is still sleeping now.

Sick

Alan's going to stay home with Shara today. She woke up with a bad dream last night and boy was she hot - took temp - 102.5. Gave Tylenol and she's sleeping. She wasn't acting sick at all, so I'm not too worried. She does have a cough. Alan got her to blow her nose good last night - threatened and when that didn't work, bribed. I'm ok with that! I'm guessing if she hadn't gotten her nose clear last night, the coughing would be much worse and I'd be much more worried.