Home. Sick!

Well, I got home at 9:35 last night & found Scott and Tay eatting dinner. As I sat down, Tay said that she hasn't been feeling well all evening, felt like she was going to puke. *sigh* Well.... Not much a mom can do about that, is there?!?! So, I told her I'm sorry and left it at that. (And she did have the semi-depressed expression on her face that she gets when she's really not feeling good.) But, she obviously felt well enough to eat all of her steak & baked potatoes for supper. She brushed her teeth, and went to bed right at 10 pm, still complaining of not feeling well. Again, I told her I'm sorry and that I hope she felt better in the morning.

Well, wouldn't ya know it, she DID wake me up at 5, and then she went to the bathroom to puke. (She's got very good control over that, she pukes IN the toilet, when SHE'S ready. *grin* It makes clean-up rather easier than with kids who don't have the ability to control when and where they lose their cookies.) *sigh* Sure enough. And, per school protocol, she's not allowed back in school for 24 hours after vomiting. Which means she misses school today.

The thing is, I don't think she's truly sick. I don't think she forced herself to puke, but I think her nerves got the better of her. You see.... Today is the first day of this year's standardized testing days. I think she'd gotten so nervous about taking those tests, that she puked more out of nerves than any other reason. She sure doesn't seem to be feeling poorly otherwise. And in fact, she said she was feeling fine this morning when she got up at 8 am. But, I still can't send her to school today. And, of course, this means that she'll have to do the make-up testing on Monday, missing all the normal school day events with the rest of her class. And wouldn't ya know it, she's peeved at ME because of that. *sigh*

Anyway, so we're home for a "sick day" today. I'm not totally grumpy about that because I'm dealing with some pretty heavy cramping today myself. But, dang..... Tay is Soooo not a fun one to be stuck home with. When I remain firm about the rule that she's not allowed to play outside if she stayed home sick, that makes me the evil mom. Unfortunately, it also remains a sure-fire way to prevent kiddo's from pretending to be sick in order to get out of going to school so they can stay home & play. But nope.... I'm evil & mean because I won't let her go outside & play now that she's "feeling better". *sigh* Not to mention, she's a constant nag. I wasn't even out of bed this morning (and, I allowed myself to "sleep in" by 15 minutes after realizing that she wasn't going to be going to school today) when she was sitting there at the foot of my bed asking what I could make her for breakfast. Then she got pissy with me when I asked her to back off for a couple of minutes & let me get myself sorted out.

She got pissy with ME when she realized she'd have to spend all of Monday inside and taking the make-up test.

She got pissy with me when I wouldn't let HER on the computer first thing.

*sigh* It's gonna be a LONG day. And if she keeps up the bad attitude, she's gonna spend it shut in her bedroom.

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The weather has been staying consistently pretty warm. Or, at least warm enough to melt the snow. Our back deck is now over half-way cleared off. The roads are, of course, a muddy, melty mess. And, it snowed yesterday morning. I talked to Scott just after putting Tay on the bus, and he said to be very careful on the drive in because the snow had made a mess of them and there were multiple accidents from folks speeding & sliding into ditches and each other. (Typical!! Folks just don't seem to remember that "Snow" means slick roads, even when they've lived with it all winter.)

Well, by the time I left for work, any snow that was on the roads out here towards North Pole had melted off and the roads themselves were dry or only wet in small patches. I actually used my cruise control almost half-way to town. The highway was that clear. Then I got to the overpass by the Army post and saw that the snow along the road-sides was thicker than it had been out toward NP. So I turned off cruise control & slowed my speed to about 53, knowing that the opposite side of that overpass has been a traffic nightmare this year, after a good snow. Sure enough, that's when I saw all the signs of folks having gone into ditches during the morning rush-hour. *shaking head*

Of course, any precipitation on the roads by the time I passed by, was melt-water. But that didn't stop me from taking it a little more slowly during the rest of the drive.

I got to work and found that one of my coworkers hadn't even made it out of the driveway (with her 4-wheel-drive pick-up truck, no less!) before she'd driven into a ditch. So, she called her daughter, who was on her way home from her morning class at the U. and told the daughter to meet her at the top of the drive. So, DB came to work in her daughter's car, and left her daughter at home waiting for a tow-truck to pull DB's truck out of the ditch. As she said, at least she was at home still when this happened, so she could wait in the house until her daughter got home from class.

But, as I said, the weather has been so beautifully warm (even if not consistently sunny) that it's been melting the snow beautifully. If this keeps up, we may have grass growing by the first of May. (Then again, it's possible we could still see another cold-snap and a good heavy snow-fall or two. One aquaintance of mine tells about how her youngest child was born here on May 9th, and her hubby had to cross-country ski out from their house to a neighbour's for the mid-wife as it'd started snowing the night of the 8th. They had almost 4 feet of snow at their house by the time Ryan was born -at home- on the 9th. Ryan is now 13 or 14 years old.)

I'm hoping we have an early spring and no late snows.

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Keep your fingers crossed, if you will.... Dad has a potential buyer coming to look at the house at noon today. The thing is, while Dad cleans up the place before he leaves it for the home-buyers to come look, the place still looks unfortunately barren & dark. Dad's living with 2 ratty old couches and an even older, rattier lazy-boy recliner. One light in the living room and his sterio on a microwave cart. He sleeps on an air-mattress in his bedroom and has his clothes in boxes or hung in the closet, with his bed-side lamp sitting on the floor. One of the two smaller bedrooms (my old room) is filled with empty boxes waiting to be packed with more items as he continues to prepare to move, so it's hard to see the real size of that room. The other of the smaller rooms (the one my sisters shared) has a good many items that he's still working his way through or storing for a garage sale to possibly be held yet this spring if the house doesn't sell before he has a chance. So it, also, is hard to gauge the size of that room.

The living room has one very ratty & disreputable looking couch and the recliner for furniture. And a stack of magazines & books on the fireplace-hearth for his browsing.

The kitchen is stocked with the bare essentials at this point: a coffee pot, the microwave, the few necessary pots & pans, and plates & silverware and his groceries. The dinning room contains his folding card-table & metal chairs, only 1 of which is set up when he's home by himself.

The family room has another ratty couch, some MORE various items (and toys & collectables) for dispersal at either garage sale or among my sisters & I, and a microwave cart holding the TV and DVD player, and 2 rugs (these in decent condition) on the floor.

It's very much a batchelor pad at this point, with little evidence of the home it could be when filled with a family's furniture & decorations. That's understandably good for HIM to be weeding & clearing out what he doesn't need to keep any longer, BUT it also means that potential buyers who come in see a place that's rather depressing to consider living in, in it's current condition of use.

I've tried talking him into taking a couple of my scented candles (or, at LEAST a scented room spray!) to improve the ambiance a bit before a buyer comes in, and he just says that he doesn't want any more clutter and why should he have to do any more than wipe down the counters & vacuume the carpets. Folks don't need candles lit or fancy smells.... But what he doesn't get is that these things help a place feel homey, and it may improve the way his place is viewed by potential buyers. (Of course, it'd REALLY help if he'd get slip-covers on those couches and that chair! But that'd require spending money, and he's being such a skin-flint that I know he'd poo-poo that idea if Mom or I mentioned it.)

Anyway, so fingers crossed, please, that folks can see past the ratty furniture to the place that the house COULD be when filled with THEIR furniture & family!

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I think that pretty well covers it for today.

Have a Blessed Day!