Balancing

Buddy's depressed, people are laughing at him.

I can't imagine why!

I normally have very mellow mornings, lots of time to chill out, sleep in, veg in front of the TV. My afternoons start to get busy with grocery runs, trips to the Embassy, functions or John needing something as he's home by 3. Then the kids come home and life pops into high gear until bedtime at 10 or 11. My problem is, I feel guilty about the quiet time in the morning. Especially because I have a maid. It's hard to enjoy a lazy morning when someone is working hard around you. I feel like I need to explain that this is the only time I have to recharge. If she read English, I could get her to read my blog! :-)

The girls are in a soccer tournament this weekend. We're hosting a player at the house, she arrived late last night - a lovely girl from Montreal! So between Quince preparations and soccer stuff, it'll be a very busy weekend indeed. I think I need a nap!

It's All About the Hair

Buddy got his shaved, I had mine coloured and Nicole had hers cut. Buddy looks the worst. Nicole and I are gorgeous, dahling!

Poor Buddy got bit by a friend...nice friend, eh? It happened on Thursday and it's seemed to be doing fine until the dog walker decided it needed iodine on it yesterday. Burned his little head! By the time he was home from his walk and I cleaned off the iodine, it had removed a nice circle of hair around the bite. Today, the vet shaved off more, trimmed the skin-flap from where some snag-toothed monster had nabbed him, gave him a shot of antibiotic and away he went! Unfortunately, it's now itching him and he scratched it pretty badly. Tomorrow we're hitting the vet up for a goofy collar to keep him off of his head - plus we kind of forgot to pay the vet when we picked Buddy up. Oh, and he's skipping the dog walks for a bit too. :-)

Lilian spent the day at my friend's cooking us dinner and helping her maid with their floors. Dinner was yummy but no chocolate in the cake - horrors!!

Missed out on two things from my list...one of which is the money from the doc. Top of the list for tomorrow!

Completed My List

At least for today! It's been a busy two days of ticking off entries on my daily lists. I've already got a half dozen things for tomorrow including a vet trip for Buddy, haircuts for Nicole and I, tailor visit for John and Jake, pick up from the doctor's office (money - cool!) and shuffling Lilian to and from my friend's house where she's going to have a cooking lesson!

Today I photocopied our bills from the last 7 months as we just found out we can claim them for an Argentinean tax refund! Score! However, photocopying them took me the better part of four hours!!! My copier's not super fast obviously. I spent the time cleaning up my desk (read piles of paper comment from previous entry) so that was extremely productive!

I then took said photocopies to the Embassy to file them, met John who was paying our bill at the grocery store at the Embassy, picked up our mail and headed to a nearby confectioner's to order some chocolate hearts for party favours! John was our designated chocolate sampler and I finally had to cut him off!! According to him (and his appetite seemed to agree!) the chocolate is excellent. They're very pretty and very affordable - score again!

Zipped back home though it was very slow going through traffic from the middle of town, dropped off John and went to pick up the girls from soccer/volleyball practice. Took them to the doctor's for their sports physicals. This was only the second time we'd been to the doctor's so when she asked for a payment, I was surprised but didn't question it (my bad) and just paid. Shortly after we got home, she called and said she owed me a refund for my payment...she hadn't received the email from our insurance showing we were covered! On my list for tomorrow she went!

John had picked up Nicole's invitations from the printer while we were gone, Lisette made us a pasta dinner and now Jake just finished his shower. Bedtime - soon for me too!

Gatherer

I spent most of today gathering groceries and my children. Both Jake and Nicole were at sleepovers last night.

It was a dreary, rainy day - cold and rainy. A perfect day to curl up with a good book but I was feeling rather energized to get some things done. Now I'm looking at a pile of papers I need to get through and my energy suddenly seems tapped out. Funny how that happens when the work stops being fun!

John's been working diligently on a school paper - he's on page 11 of 20. It's due in a few days and he's determined to get to page 15 by tonight. Go John Go!

I made a delicious roast for dinner but nibbled too much so suppertime was a hodge-podge of eating. Jake had a friend over to play and they nibbled too between Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Uno. The girls have been back and forth from their rooms, the attic and the kitchen. I'm hoping they grabbed some decent food in their gathering trips...it was that kind of a Sunday!

Here's to the warmer weather forecasted for later this week!

Saturday Run Around

Nicole had a volleyball game this morning. I woke her up TWICE before she finally got moving, about 15 minutes before she was supposed to be there. She's already on Argentine-time, how quickly they adapt.

Lisette joined her a few hours later for soccer - neither of them knowing that they had a game, not a practice - actually a tournament, not just a game! Seems to be a communication problem between the coach and the team. Unfortunately the communication breakdown continued because the girls never got around to telling us they had games so we expected a call for a pick-up at two (when "practice" was supposed to end.) By 2:45, John was driving to the school to see what the heck was going on. Breathe.

Actually, other than sleepy-head and the bone-headed soccer issues, it was a great day! :-)

When we finally gathered our kids, John and I took Nicole and her girlfriend to the hall where Nicole's having her Quinceneara. We made the final payment for the hall, met with the caterer and the DJs and made some plans for the physical set-up we can all live with. Very productive couple of hours.

Back home, we hung out and made some phone calls. Then took Lisette and Jake to our friends house so Lisette could babysit the boys while parents went out to dinner. Before we went to dinner, we dropped Nicole and Melanie at Melanie's house...for Melanie's surprise birthday party!! Surprise Melanie!! We were in cahoots with the party planner and we had to work in a delayed arrival by stopping at the grocery store - I drew a blank on needing anything but John saved the day by mentioning he needed razors. Whew!

Dinner was fabulous - accompanied by a cocktail lounge singer who sang the classics from the 60s and 70s. Fun!

Now it's pouring outside - I didn't even know we might have rain. It's late, I'm tired and the house is cozy and warm! Goodnight!

On Your Mark, Get Set...

That's how today felt. I did get to sleep in until 8:30...that was nice!

I went and had a facial this morning - it was wonderful, thank you. I've already made my next appointment too. Then I had to hurry over to the high school and pick up Nicole - as well as pay for August's school lunches. She skipped school this afternoon to go to a dress shop. You can tell we're panicking a bit.

Good news though! The dress has been found. One dressmaker had quoted us $1000 to make this beautiful thing that we could have ordered and had shipped to us for $300. Ahhhh! The dress shop lady today will make a very similar dress for Nicole for $350. Sold! Painful amount actually but much better than $1000!

Then we bought two birthday gifts, one for Lilian and one for a friend of Jake's. We dropped off Nicole's invitations to be printed - begged for them to be ready on Monday. :-) Begging works. John stopped at a tailor's to shorten the arms of a dress jacket he bought a year ago. And...we had lunch.

Picked up Jake and Lisette at the end of school, after dropping off paperwork we need the school to fill out. Hurried home, Jake changed, Lisette changed and we all headed to the place of Jake's birthday party then dropped Lisette back off at school so she could drive with a friend to another birthday party.

Now it's almost time to go pick up Jake. Later it will be Lisette but we've had a few hours to catch our collective breaths.

We Have Heat

Ahhhhhh.

High School Open House

Busy day!

First, I attended a Spouse Welcome Coffee through the embassy. I played driver, much to the dismay or delight of my passengers - God bless 'em! :-) Italy taught me well to survive the streets of Buenos Aires.

Then I had lunch with a couple of friends before school let out. John, Nicole and I went in search of a Quinceneara dress for Nicole. She found one she liked - $400!!! I'm not sure how accurate that number is to what we can expect at future shops...I'm scared! The good news is she actually liked a dress at the first place we've tried. Nicole is brutally fussy about her clothes. As her party is only a few weeks away, it's crunch time.

This evening we attended the High School Open House. Jake traveled with us from class to class while we listened to each of the girls' teachers explain their expectations for our kids this year. Once again, John and I are so very impressed with the teachers at this school. Not only are they knowledgeable, they're all very enthusiastic about their jobs. You can tell that they love what they do.

The girls helped direct parents to the right rooms and basically hung out with friends while we did the tour. Quote of the day from Jake when we asked if he'd rather stay with his sister than go with us to another classroom - "I'd rather be bored than hang out with my sister in public" - how old is he again???

BTW, we're still freezing. Final tweaks on the heating system is supposed to happen tomorrow morning. Hmmmm. Seems like I've heard that before.

Still Still Freezing!

It's supposed to go down to 38 degrees tonight. Ahhhh! I have my sexy flannel pajamas on, yup, lucky John.

Don't think anything important was done today around here. The girls had soccer practice this morning, John did the drop off and I did the pick up. Then Lisette went to a birthday party, she forgot the gift on the coffee table so we turned around and came back for it. It was a few hours before I got home (grocery stop was involved and the party was near downtown) - I found her cell phone still plugged in when I walked through the kitchen. Sigh. :-)

Nicole had friends over to hang out - they came even though we warned them it was cold here! They left before pizza was ordered so it was a small order. Delicious empanadas for me!

John tried to start a fire, he blames the wood being wet for his inability to get anything but the paper to light. Yeah, okay. LOL

Time to get back to my best friend, the space heater.
Besitos!

Still Freezing

It's really, really cold in this house - around 60 degrees if we're lucky. My refrigerator magnet thermometer only goes down to 62 so I'm not exactly sure. And I'm sitting at the computer eating...ice cream. Don't know why, seemed like a good idea at the time?

John and I went on a date last night, the first one in waaaaay too long. We went to see Ocean's Thirteen - in English with Spanish subtitles, we got a few of the jokes that the rest of the audience didn't catch! I'd already seen it but John didn't get anything out of me when he questioned during the movie. Great movie - even the second time round! John liked it even more than Ocean's Eleven! Trivia - in Spanish it's called "Now There's Thirteen." After the movie we spent a luxurious amount of time over dinner at a favourite restaurant. Good date!

Today we eventually got moving and went to scout a store with Quince dresses for Nicole - it was closed but we found it. Then John talked to the DJ and loosely hired him, he's supposed to call him back on Tuesday. I found an invitation store online...follow up on that on Tuesday too.

I made Cuban Chicken and Yellow Rice for dinner - John liked it the most of all of us but it was a new recipe I just need to tweak. Best plan would be to spend a few days with his grandmother and learn from the master!

Nicole is spending the afternoon/evening at her friend's keeping warm. My fingers are now really, really cold so I'm going to stop typing and go warm up with the rest of the family watching "Night at the Museum"!

Love to you all!

Poised over the Keyboard

That's where my fingers were while I tried to think of what to write. It's been three whole days since my last entry...now that sounded like a confession!

Thursday was gloomy, Friday was bright and cheery, today I'm limping around with an ingrown toenail. Yuck! Does anyone know a good cure? It hurts bad and I don't want to go out because I'd have to put a shoe on the darn thing.

My house seems to be falling apart a bit, never mind my toe. Lisette broke the glass plate from in the microwave, I tore the lining on the door of the washing machine - resulting in a small flood in the laundry room last night and now the pump for the furnace is kaput. Hmmmmm. Happens in threes so hopefully we're safe. Not sure if we'll need to buy a new microwave or washing machine but the furnace pump won't be replaced until Tuesday at the earliest! Brrrr.

Nicole went to a sleepover last night then the girls had soccer practice today at noon. Poor Nicole's legs are killing her, John had her jumping during an impromptu volleyball practice after soccer.

Nothing much else to report - hope to find a microwave parts place today but that's just wishful thinking I'm afraid! :-)

More Active

I did go back to bed after getting the kids on the bus but I only slept until 10. Actually I kept hitting the snooze button after 9 so technically I napped for an hour with regular interruptions. :-)

My friend came and picked me up for lunch...we caught up on some things then headed to the school to get her son from Pre-School where I ran into another friend and chatted. The weather was horrible this morning but by lunchtime the sun was up and it was gorgeous out. So nice to be out and about!

Mary dropped me off at my house and I walked straight through to the garage to the car. I finally hit the big grocery store and did some damage to the grocery list I made on Monday. Paid a bill and started back home.

Lisette called about then to ask for a pick-up from school so I dropped the groceries off with Lilian and headed her way. Back home to get Jake ready to go on a play date with Mary's older son. I was surprised to find Nicole home - had her write out a basic schedule of practices for volleyball/soccer so I have a clue who's where and when.

John had called earlier to get a list of things I needed from the Embassy grocery store - he called to update me on what was and wasn't available. I told him to forget the tomato paste and for some reason he figured that meant I didn't want the tomato soup (?????) either. Grrrrrr. There went my plan for chili tonight. He nicely sucked up to me while I pouted so I gave in to his cuteness. :-) It was pasta night tonight instead.

School things were organized a little better tonight. John and I hung out in front of the TV. I have more plans for the day tomorrow...maybe I'll feel energized again!

Tuesday, Tuesday

Felt like Monday, Monday to me. The girls chose to ride the bus but I talked Jake into letting me take him to school on the pretense of meeting his teacher. We've always walked the girls into class the first day of school, until they got to middle school! I really don't think Jake had a problem with entering his class solo but he consented to me accompanying him. :-)

Unfortunately, his teacher was not in the class so I didn't get the chance to meet him but Jake was quite happy about his new classroom when he got home this afternoon. The girls were welcomed enthusiastically back to school by their classmates so all is well in School Land. Lisette told me she was touched by how many of her friends knew about David - small community, between her and Nicole's friends, news travels.

Nicole went to volleyball practice after school, Lisette went to soccer practice - the beginning of the back-and-forth school trips begins because the practices don't start or end at the same time of course! John was here to share the trips though! Yeah!

I had lots of plans for things to get done today - but I slept through them. I thought I'd take an hour nap but it turned into three. Sigh. Managed to finish the final Harry Potter book though!! Score! I could tell you all its secrets but I won't! I do highly recommend it - and don't look ahead! Didn't think I could help myself but managed to behave and it was worth it.

John had me fill him in on the book's details - says he'll never take the time to read it anyway...shame on him!

So tomorrow, maybe I'll get those errands done...hmmmm, supposed to rain, maybe I can ignore them for just one more day! :-)

Safely Home!

Tired, grumpy and a little delirious but home! Jake had the best sleep on the plane, John had the least...but the girls and I were the most grumpy upon arrival. We had a twelve hour layover in Atlanta but we spent it napping, reading, surfing the web, had lunch, did a little shopping and drank a lot of water.

It was so nice to lie down in our beds when we dragged ourselves upstairs! Poor John had to go to school but he's back home already. I took the kids over to their school when we awoke from our naps, Nicole chose to stay for her last class of the day because the teacher's supposed to be "cool" - 'nough said, right? Jake didn't get the teacher that he wanted but he didn't seem too upset about it...his best friend isn't in his class but he wasn't too upset about that either - score!

So tomorrow they'll be on the bus and I expect I'll be climbing back into bed. The plan is to get to sleep really early tonight - we'll see how that pans out!

Day By Day

We did some shopping yesterday, getting a beautiful dress for Nicole and some shoes for Lisette. They came mostly prepared for the funeral - Nicole doesn't have much for somber occasions!

We ran into Kim, Nick, Natasha and Matt at the mall and spent some time with them. Kim found a beautiful dress too - she looks like she's worn out though. We left the girls to sleep over late last evening with strict instructions to stay mellow. I think they do her heart good though.

Cindy came over and spent an hour or so with us at my mom's...brought her pups with her so the kids could meet Chaos - he's named well! :-)

Today is another shopping day, tomorrow's the funeral. We're just trying to blanket Kimmy with our love, I'm sure it helps but the sadness in her face breaks my heart too!

Family Arrives!

John and the kids arrived yesterday...I missed them even more than I realized!! Aeron and my mom went with me to the airport to pick them up. Jake seems to have grown 6 inches in the last two weeks! They haven't been here for two years so Aeron saw the biggest changes!

We hung out at my mom's house - Cindy and Kim's gang came to keep us company. The girls (including Aeron) are sleeping at Kim's with strict instructions to behave...Kim actually suggested they stay with her! Three teenage girls in a house that needs some tranquility - I hope Kim needs a little insanity too!

Recovery Mode

As usual, family is strong around here when tragedy strikes. I spent the day with Kim, Cindy, Mom, Matt, Aeron, Nick and Natasha. Kim left to arrange things at the funeral home with David's parents but otherwise we were moving in tight circles around each other, interacting with love, tears and laughter. So the healing begins.

John is racing the clock, arranging to come here with the kids. He even took on something for me - rescheduling my return flight to come home with them. I asked him to do it so I didn't have to bawl on the phone to some stranger! Embarrassing! :-)

Passing

David passed away tonight at 9:45 PM. He was peaceful, had been comfortable all day. Most importantly, he had been surrounded by those who love him...all day too. Our hearts are broken for Kim - they were each other's very best friend. He made her laugh like no one else has. Please lift them up in your thoughts and prayers and hold your loved ones tight in David's memory.

Ups and Downs

The "ups" was actually an "up" - my mom and I had a delicious dinner at a local Italian eatery! Mmm Mmm Good!

Poor David had another rough day. We have had a problem with managing his pain. I get very frustrated with this because it's not necessarily the answer just to throw a bunch of painkillers into him. When he's unconscious, he can't drink...when he can't drink, he gets a fever. If we hydrate him some other way, we chance overloading his kidneys/lungs with fluids. Such a hard problem with no long term solutions so we do the best we can.

I just thought of another "up and down" for today! John and the kids flew back to Buenos Aires from their Bariloche ski (actually snowboard) vacation! Safe and sound! Jake was still not feeling well this morning but the girls got to do a little more snowboarding before heading to the airport. John had promised more pictures to me tonight but I haven't seen them yet - I'll post one or two when I get them!

Talk to you soon!

Reality Bites

David had a rough day today. More pain, more trouble breathing. Just when you settle into a little groove, the reality hits that he's not going to improve...that's not the forecast. He scared the daylights out of me this evening. His temperature had gone up a little, he wasn't drinking, he wasn't peeing and his chest tube wasn't draining much at all. Then his night nurse showed up. He woke up a bit, drank a whole lot of water and peed a whole lot (sorry David!) - I was so relieved but it was too late, I'd been bitten by reality. This totally sucks.

The bright and sunny spot of my day was having dinner with my nephew and his wife. I hadn't met her until tonight! She's sweet and beautiful - just what I'd want for my "first" child...my oldest nephew, "my boy" until Jake came along. :-)

Down in Argentina John had to cancel snowboarding - Jake's not feeling well. They're hoping to get back to the slopes tomorrow, John may have to sit and drink hot chocolate with Jake at the lodge while the girls have all the fun though! However, John + chocolate = happy man!

Good News Update

We have in-home nursing care from 9 PM to 9 AM tonight! Sleep!!! David had a great day so that helps the relaxation thing too!

Kimmy was less stressed today as I may be still in the running for "nurse of the year" - seems like only a couple members of the family are unhappy with me. The rest have been super sweet and brought way too much food! :-) Whew!

Sweet dreams!!

David's Home!!

He arrived yesterday afternoon. Although he's still mainly unconscious, he knows he's home and even had the opportunity to cuddle with his favourite pup, Baker. I've always called David "Dr. Doolittle" because he absolutely loves animals and they feel the same way about him. Our dog Carina adored him to such a degree we almost sent her home with him! So now David sleeps with Baker curled up beside him in bed, she gave his hand a lick when it came her way...too sweet. It was a thrill when David glanced my way last evening and said "Oh, hi Shell" - you appreciate the little things!

Unfortunately I've added to Kim's stress by pissing off David's family. I won't go into details but I'm pretty much guaranteed not to get "nurse of the year" award from them. Kim says I'm being overprotective of her but nobody's messing with Saint Kimmy on my watch!! Perhaps I could blame it on my Irish temper but I won't! :-) Interestingly enough, I have never, in all my years of nursing, had a family or patient who didn't like me...there's a first for everything I guess! Again, my only regret is the additional stress it brought Kim. She's being amazing too!

John and the kids took the day off of snowboarding yesterday. They took a ski lift up to the top of the mountain and froze their derrieres off! John said the view was utterly beautiful though! Man, do I wish I was there - for all sorts of reasons! :-)