Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Circus

It's been a nice weekend. I was picking up dinner from Fernando's earlier in the week and saw a box of many "Free Child's Ticket" to the Star Family Circus. I grabbed three and marked the calendar.

All in all, it was a fun experience for the kids and us as a family. We haven't done much just-us for a while, so it was great getting our family out and about.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Update on Dad

So far, Dad's been doing not so well. He spent a few days in the hospital last week because he was yelling in his sleep (something he's never done). Emily was spending the night, so she took him to the emergency room where a bunch of morons didn't run any tests or check the screaming monitor that said my dad had no pulse when he unplugged something. It was ridiculous. He's back home, but he's hallucinating frequently and is always disoriented. He wants to walk around, but sways. Last night, he fell about four or five times when trying to get to the bathroom. Mom has been trying to look after him, but she goes into panic mode and doesn't know what to do and ends up yelling at him or us or gets irrational and overly emotional. I'm having a hard time dealing with her like this.

Emily is going to be staying with us for a few nights to keep an eye on him. I want to be able to do more, but having the kids (especially a baby) makes it difficult. I make sure to cook and get Dad something to eat, though, so part of me feels like I'm at least doing something. Mom's debating the possibility of having a swing bed service look after him. I agree that he needs professionals looking after him, but I feel guilty all the same because he's my dad and it's like we're trying to get rid of him. 

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Christmas 2016 - New Year's 2017

Christmas Day

Aside from the horrific events, we had a really great Christmas Eve and Day. The kids opened their traditional matching pajamas, which I was able to get a picture of before letting Elias eat cookies and make a mess all over himself. Emily came over and we decorated a gingerbread village and I baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa. I found a Santa-Tracker app on my phone, so it was fun showing the kids where Santa was located and when he'd arrive at our house. It was super fun for them as they hurried to bed. Jac swears he heard sleigh bells. They were in bed before midnight.


Christmas Day was relaxing that morning. Everyone basically got what they wanted, plus some cool extra stuff. Santa only drops off one thing for each kid now (so much easier), so Zac and I buy whatever else. This year the big kids wanted robots. I blame cable TV in Dad's room for all the commercials. So Jac only wanted an interactive R2D2 and Leah wanted a Zoomer cat. Santa brought her a Meowzie (Zoomer kitten) and she was disappointed that it didn't roll, despite having wheels. She's come to like it, though. And Elias got a rocking horse.


I dyed my hair blonde for the first time in centuries, as I look horrible as a blonde. One of my resolutions is to change my hair color frequently and vibrantly this year. My bathroom lighting makes colors looks strange, so while my hair looks orange in the picture, it was much lighter in real life.


We went to Sean's for New Year's. We arrived early enough for the kids to play for a little while before having to go to bed. Sean introduced us to his lady-friend, Erica, who Leah just loved to pieces. Erica is into Minecraft on a level similar to Jac's so they're all basically BFFs. Mom had bought tickets for the Polar Express train ride in New Orleans prior to Dad's accident, so since they couldn't go, we brought Marie and Francesca. It was such a fun experience. The kids loved it and it was nice going with Zac's family.


Jessie invited us over to watch fireworks, but it rained all weekend. We hung out and she dolled me up all fancy while Zac picked up a pizza. She even baked some chocolate macarons, O.M.G. They were delicious. The big kids played with Orrin and his super cool Millennium Falcon hovercraft while us grownups enjoyed coffee and conversation. Elias was on such great behavior, we kinda forgot he was around, haha.


It was a great weekend, even in the rain. We had king cake and Kyle bought me a new bottle of Malibu since he drank all mine from our last visit. I washed all our dirty clothes and we came back to Mississippi. Karen came to stay with us for a few days to help watch Dad since it's difficult for me to give him 100% attention when I've got kids to worry about.


I dyed my hair green and we had our first snow of the year. I say snow, but it's really ice. Cold, slippery ice. The kids are loving it, though.