Another Week, Gone!

First off, to answer a couple of questions.

Whim: Tired of hockey? HELL YES!!! I'm so freaking sick of hockey right now I think I'd personally like a year of NONE! However, that won't happen OR work. Tay's rather burnt out right now as well, which is weighing heavily on what team we decide to let her try for next year. The comp(etition) team that she'd really excel on, has 5 skates a week, not to mention "dryland" (conditioning) and "chalk time" (strategy talks with the coach). There's NO WAY we're going to manage that. And Tay feels overwhealmed right now, this year, with as much hockey as we've been dealing with. It'd be abso-freaking-lutely impossible to manage 5 skates a week, plus conditioning, PLUS "chalk talk" times, AND do anything else, such as have friends, do schoolwork, etc. I don't see how any of the parents manage it, either. Esp. those who have multiple kids on ice. Anyway, the over-abundance of ice-time this past month has also led Scott and Tay to decision to NOT participate in Spring League this year. While they've both said that a part of them will miss doing that (it's all games, no practices, twice a week), they've agreed with me that we need a couple of months off this year between hockey's end and soccer's beginning. So, we'll end hockey in March, have April and May off, then soccer starts in June and runs 2 months. Busy, yes, but not as bad as this past year's been.

Peter: Yeah, _I_ did better than 1 zucchini here at my house this summer, but those almost all got promptly eaten. (I shredded the largest one for casserole-usage this winter.) However, the FIL wanted a loaf of zucchini bread made out of HIS zucchini. *grin* He doesn't bake, so he turned the zuke over to me to shred and freeze and bake for him. Ok. I got a smaller loaf out of it for Tay and I, as well. *chuckle* Really though, NOBODY did terribly well with zucchini this year, around here. It was too dang moist. Too much rain was causing the zukes to rot on the stem before they got big enough to eat. *shrug* The fact that we (FIL and Myself) got 2 zucchini large enough to shred, and the 4 or 5 smaller eating-size zucchini _I_ got, means that WE had a pretty decent harvest this year, comparatively. (MOST of the gardeners at my work love zucchini and always have an overabundance to share. I think only ONE other woman at work reported ANY harvestable zukes, and she had only 1! Just too moist this past summer!)

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So, an update on how the past week has been. Um, the past week..... I'm not really sure I recall. *chuckle* Just so busy with such normal "stuff" that I don't even recall most of what happened this past week.

Really, the only thing out of the ordinary was the eye dr. appointments Tay and I had at the end of the week. Thursday was Tay's appointment. She's still got "eagle eyes". This means that her educational issues are not due to being unable to read either a chalk-board OR the letters in a book. Even her past issues of "transposing" her letters has decreased, mainly with practice reading and being more aware of her need to "slow it down" when she reads. The Dr. didn't think there's any basis there for dyslexia. Good! Kinda wish the result HAD been as simple as Tay needing reading glasses, but it also means a definitive answer to that part of the question at least. (This coming week Tay has her hearing check, just to make sure it's not her ears that are unable to hear what's being said.)

Friday (yesterday) I had MY eye check-up. It's been 4 years since I've been to see an eye dr. It went well. My eyes have changed only fractionally. The right eye got fractionally worse, the left eye stayed the same (it'd gotten fractionally better 4 years ago, from the appointment prior to THAT). Therefore, the dissonance between my two eyes is closer now than it has been in a long time. (To put it into contact-lense prescription terms, I use a -425 in my left eye, a -250 in my right eye. 10 years ago, it was -450 in my left and -225 in my right.) I've ordered a new pair of glasses, and the Dr gave me a trial pair of contact lenses to see if they'll be comfortable for me. I go back in on Friday to confirm or change the contact lenses. So far, so good.

In the past I've always gone with colored contacts. I usually chose "evergreen" contacts because I wanted green eyes. I decided that as I've stopped coloring my hair, and am finally getting to like my natural hair color (probably JUST in time for it to start going gray), I may as well try to get to the point where I like my natural eye color as well. *chuckle* After all, it's been the eye color I've been seeing in the mirror for over 4 years, covered over with glasses. Maybe seeing them in the mirror WITHOUT glasses will allow me to finally accept them as they are, instead of always wishing they were different. (Besides, when I think analytically, my eyes are pretty cool in that they change color a bit with my moods, from gray when all's calm and quiet, to nearly-green when I'm really torqued about something. Blue is the average middle. Aqua when I'm sad.) Once my glasses come in, I'll try to get a couple of new pics taken of me, to share: with my old glasses, with my new glasses, with contacts. *chuckle* Esp. since I didn't do a "birthday" picture this year.

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Things have been pretty quiet at work this past week, for which I'm grateful. We'll see if the coming week is as quiet.

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It's the end of the second quarter/first semester today. Grades are supposed to be in. Tay's supposed to have finished lesson 80 and taken the corresponding test. She's only finished through lesson 65 so far. Which means the grades for this quarter will end up being an Incomplete. Her "teacher" said that this is ok, as long as I get the grade to her when Tay DOES finish up the lessons. But, we're going to have 3 non-lesson week days this coming week. The 5th and 7th graders all have testing to go to on Tuesday and Wednesday which will take up all our schooling hours for those two days. Then on Friday Tay's got her hearing test, her next meeting with her therapist (L.), and then I have my contact-lense follow-up that afternoon. It's going to be so busy that we won't be able to fit in any schooling. Which leaves only Monday and Thursday for actual lessons. *sigh*

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On top of the busy-ness (which, other than my eye appointment yesterday morning, I actually sat around and watched TV all day and didn't do anything else as I was too tired from lack of sleep), I was up at the University today to work at the concession stand selling ball-game food for the duration of the U's women's basketball game. Scott worked the Concession stand on Thursday, I worked tonight, covering for another team-mom who's not had any other chances to see a wrestling match for her oldest child. (She's got 3 kids, the oldest is in wrestling through his HS and his team leaves tomorrow for state, or something. This was the ONLY match she's NOT been so heavily schedualed for that she couldn't make it. Then the concessions were schedualed and she was going to have to miss it. I volunteered to take her place.) ANYWAY, there were supposed to be 6 of us working the concession stand tonight (from 2 pm, to start setting up, to 7 pm for closing down). Only 3 of us showed. The 3 of us got along well, and had a good time, and brought in LOTS of money for our team, but we're all rather disappointed in the other 3 people who apparently felt themselves above the needs of the team and didn't show up to help out. (Oh, and we finished clean-up by 6 pm, no less!)

It was made clear to us by the Team Manager that with 17 girls on the team, every girl would need ONE parent to pull ONE shift, and ONE girl would need a parent to pull 2 shifts (or both parents to pull a shift each). One of the other girls wound up with BOTH her Mom & Dad working Thursday's shift with Scott. Really, there shouldn't have been ANY problem for one parent from every other girl to pull a single 5 hour shift (the remainder of the shifts are March 7th). BUT, some people just can't seem to wrap their minds around the fact that this is fundraising FOR OUR GIRLS! This is money we're working for in order to have LESS we've got to pay for out of pocket. That means, this money we raised tonight will help cover ice-time for our girls. And ice-time has gotten REALLY expensive! But again, some people seem to think they're above all that. (And, they're the ones who gripe loudest when a money-call goes out, because fundraising efforts weren't sufficient.)

So, somewhat peeved with a couple of parents from our team, tonight.

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Weather-wise..... Things have cooled down a bit again. It's been ranging from about 15 deg. ABOVE zero to -20 at night. But, since that cold-spell we had at the beginning of January, I don't think we've seen colder than -25 again. And that's just fine!!! Most everybody I've talked to (esp. those of us who've lived around here for a good long while) agrees that we'd love it if temps ranged only from -25 to +20 this time of year. Any warmer, the roads are too slick. Any colder, it's too cold to be outside for more than the absolute minimum. But, February is still to come. It COULD get cold again. We're not REALLY "out of the woods" as far as extreme cold goes, until March.

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We never DID find the seeds, so as of now I'll be ordering more seeds blindly not knowing what we may find left over from last year. *sigh* I already told Scott that this coming summer, as soon as we're done planting, I'm bringing the leftover seeds home with me to keep track of. I haven't yet made the order, though, or even written up what I'm going to order.

Ok. I think that pretty well covers it. I've gotta get off here and help Tay with dinner. (Pre-made, frozen pizza; salad; maybe some garlic bread.)

Have a Blessed Day!