In a weird place.

Everyone at work is sick. I feel a little bit of a sore throat, but think that the Oscillococcinum is kicking it. I have a touch of a runny nose, but again the homeopathic stuff seems to be dealing with it. The energy isn't what I would hope for, but we had a busy weekend and launched into the week full force.

K- brought home her school paper and one side was great, the otherside was notsomuch. She failed to color the plum purple and didn't finish the color fill-in section at the bottom of the page. It made me sad. It made me think that she is getting too busy worried about what everyone else is doing and what she might be missing. When asked about it, she said that there was snack and books and she didn't want to miss them. She is 5 and we don't want to be too hard on her, as again-- she did a great job on the one side of the paper. Her papers have consistently been great. The day previous, she missed one fill-in color spot, but that can happen.

She doesn't want to "buy" at school because of Mr. Gymsocks (I'm sure that isn't his name, but it is what she calls him and it is kind of funny) has a "loud voice and a very loud whistle." She also doesn't want to participate in gym tomorrow because of the same thing. I told her that it is okay to feel that way because some days there are things that I have to do that I don't want to. Sometimes it is tough to do at first, but you find it really wasn't that bad when you get into it or is downright fun.

She did great walking to school yesterday, but today we had her friend walking with us and she was a pistol again.

To get her up, dressed, fed and moving is sometimes a battle. It matters none how much sleep she has gotten. But then, Saturday morning she is up at the crack of 7 AM without problem so that she can "watch her kid shows."

On the bright side of behavior, she always stays "on green" and "her clip didn't get moved." Which basically means that she had great behavior. She is earning her "Kinderbucks" for good behavior and even took the sippy cup down to the office for the little boy that fell ill today that was going home.

There is an adjustment period, yes?

Her "poquito" bites aren't necessarily poquito per se, but they are markedly better. That is amazing since she itches them to bleeding.

K- had a child vomit in her classroom today. I'm just waiting to see when the "red phone" will ring. (A friend reference about the stomach flu. He said that it is like waiting on the presidential war phone, thus the reference stuck.)

I'm going to have to battle her at the doctor's office, since it is flu shot day tomorrow. Can we sing, "Oh, joy?!"

Have I mentioned that I've started the marble jar with K-? For each chore she does without complaint, trip to school she has without bad behavior, good morning of getting ready and so forth, she earns a marble for each thing. She was talking about wanting to make ice cream. I told her that she needed to earn 25 marbles to make homemade ice cream. Yesterday morning I would periodically hear "clink!" "But mommy, I put my shoes on without a fit." "But mommy, I brushed my hair without a fit!" Next she'll be plunking a marble in for each tooth she brushes!

We're coming up on the 1 year anniversary of my aunt's death. I'll do a post on her, but it has brought me to tears several times this week.

I have P*MS and it is ugly. I've eaten a full package of chocolate chip cookies.

My cousin had nasal reconstruction surgery today (she is a daughter of my aunt that I spoke of above) and confided in me about her concern of something going wrong and it maybe being the last time she would see her daughter. I brought a crockpot dinner for them and dropped it off this morning. I think that the visit is just what she needed, but I did finally have to excuse myself to go to work.

Hubs has been battling the same kind of ucky ick that I have been. When he battles, it throws his entire system off. Digestively, he is on a very delicate balance.

Though I was looking forward to the extra time on Thursday and Friday when K- is in school, but I've obligated myself to helping to make my grandmother's apartment rehab-compliant tomorrow. Hopefully that won't take long as it is a senior citizens building and I don't foresee big issues. Yesterday I received a frantic e-mail from the church secretary needing help with a funeral dinner (she is going on vacation tomorrow and is trying to cover it now), so I'm now making a crockpot of green beans and going to be at the church to serve from 10:30 AM - clean-up is over. I've been looking forward to deep cleaning the house so that I can get painting the kitchen before the cold hits.

On Labor Day, there was a post at a blog that I regularly visit asking since it was Labor Day, "How long were you in labor and what is the total sum weight of all the babies that you had?" Um, 32 hours and 14.6 oz. Yes. Not really the answer that they were looking for. What I did say that I was in and out of labor and delivery in an hour, required no removal of clothing and carried my bundle of bouncing baby girl out in the carrier with the nurse. I explained that not everyone goes through traditional childbirth, that I was an adoptive mother. It made me think of a few things, though. First, I hate to leave Bailey out. It gives an awkward pause in conversation and is like a solicitation for sympathy. It's not what I'm going for, so when people innocently ask how many children we have, I say, "One." Sometimes it is a stabby pain, though. Secondly, sometimes it just plainly makes me feel a little left out. So many assume that to be a mother means that you had to physically carry the child in your womb. I didn't. God carried her in the womb of another woman for us. For us, K-'s gestation was a faith thing. K-'s birth was completely a miracle from God. K-'s adoption was a blessing that had God's handies all over it. I just wish I didn't feel so less-than about it sometimes.

It took me two days to get a display done at work. I had a bag line called Baggallini and a bunch of Halloween merchandise that I opted to display together. Believe it or not, it actually looks really good. I have to admit something. Halloween just isn't my bag. Oh, I'm good with the pumpkin patch, the apple orchard, trick or treat and pumpkin carving, but I hate the scary, yucky, just down right frightening part of Halloween. I'm more of a happy pumpkin/celebrate harvest kind of girl. I wore my happy pumpkin shirt today to work to get into the mood. (It is just a simple black shirt with a 4" diameter jelly bead pumpkin face.) I even wore my Halloween socks. It worked. I got it done, but it was like pulling teeth. There is something to be said for fighting off a cold and battling P*MS on top of it.

So I'm in a funk. It'll go away soon.

Smiles in my day:
- K- coming home from my mother-in-law's house already bathed.
- Hubs asking his co-worker if she needed anything from the craft store. She actually sent a hete*rose*xual male into a craft store with a full list of VERY SPECIFIC items and had him so completely frightened that he needed to get everything that he stayed in the store for an hour and a half until he tackled the list. She asked for feathers of a particular fluff in specific colors. She wanted googly eyes of a certain size only. Oh heavens only knows what else she asked for. He got it all, though. That is dedication!
- It was the last day of work for the week. I worked 2 days and got one free. Not too bad!