So the snow is coming tonight. Some weather models are forcasting 12-18 inches. Kids are gleeful. I’m a little winter weary. I hope we have enough toilet paper.
Nat and the kids made valentines for Edda’s class yesterday afternoon. Vince is a little disappointed that he no longer has parties in middle school – so he wants to go to Edda’s party.
Saved my pennies and bought myself a full-frame camera. Such a relief for a 28mm to really be a 28mm – look how close I can get to Vince’s face. I’ve been forever suffering from having lenses that are not wide enough. And – really nice performance at ISO 1250. So many focus points and I don’t yet know how to choose the one I want. I just hope that I didn’t catch the DSLR as they become obsolete. As everyone heads to their cell phone cameras – I go the opposite direction.
Having said that, probably, Costa Rica is still a better place than those other countries on the other side of our southern border. In my views, globalization is killing every possible opportunity for upward mobility for most people in the world, including us. Look, everywhere in the world, rich gets more $$$ and poor gets less necessity. The gap is increasing in such an alarming rate and its slowing down is not in sight – there is no light yet on the other side of the tunnel.
Eliana, our 2nd au pair, is back from Colombia and is marrying her American boyfriend on Friday (Valentine’s Day! Very romantic.) We met him for the first time on Sunday at lunch. He’s a nice guy sweet and talkative. Plays a lot of football, yet knows how to put fondant on a layered cake. A man of many talents.
I’m excited to be Eliana’s witness at her wedding on Friday. Actually, I’m honored that I get to go and do this for Eliana – all these girls are like family to me. I wish her a lifetime of happiness and good fortune!
Went to a “hen party” on Saturday where I heard lots of stories about the women’s lib movement.
It’s been really interesting to be going to school now in a female-dominated field after a lifetime of being in a male-dominated field. Lots of interesting gender observations. Lots of people at the afternoon tea mentioned that I should open a medical device company or else be the bridge between the nurses who are called upon to use more and more complicated technical/computerized machines and the medical device engineers who usually make devices with poor user interfaces. We will see! Exciting possibilities.
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Meanwhile, I have to get through nursing school. This semester, I have to actually demonstrate skills – so here’s a review card.
Spending Saturday night trying to melt a block of ice from the inside of the fridge with a hairdryer. Exciting!
Edda’s been mad all day. We aren’t really sure why. She’s really happy when she’s sitting on the potty. I don’t really want to admit how many hours she has been on the potty today. It’s not fun hearing her cry all day. Jeremy thinks she’s a little under the weather. We’ve given her Motrin and Tylenol – hopefully it’s just a passing thing.
We tried to watch Ghostbusters with Vince tonight (I’d never seen it before & Edda was on the potty). We made it about 2/3 of the way through when he declared that it was too scary to watch. He’s kind of a sensitive boy.
Jeremy’s taking over the laundry duties from me. Apparently, I’m not very timely with the folding and therefore the dogs sleep on the clean pile and then the clean laundry ends up all wrinkled and covered with dog hair. I don’t really have a problem with that, but I think Jeremy does.
Second week of nursing school is done! This semester is fun! Lots of hands on stuff (only on fake people though).
Snow day again in MD. We have used up all our allotted snow days. There are none left. Vince was bored. This is what happened:
Sunday night dinner did include the Super Bowl with all the traditional foods.
We didn’t stay very long, only until 7 pm – long enough to watch a few commercials and eat some more potato chips. I really wanted to ask Christine about changing a dressing on a pressure ulcer wound – when exactly does one switch over from regular gloves in the room to the sterile gloves with a sterile field. Apparently, in the clinical setting, one does these things completely differently than the way I’m learning in school. Oh well. Just how it goes I suppose – I know if I was changing a dressing on a wound on Edda in a hospital bed, there wouldn’t be a sterile surface anywhere…
We drove 4 hours from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando because one kid from Hong Kong would like to visit Disney World. I can not believe that they (the rest of the team) spent half day yesterday shopping yet they still had the energy to shop all day today. I sat there besides those stuffs they bought and felt pretty helpless boring and hopeless. While sitting there, shopping wasn’t over yet.
I guess one of the reasons that they shop all the way is because, here, things are much cheaper, way cheaper than anywhere in the world. Besides shopping, eating is a big thing too. Too big to slim down a bit 🙂
Janos came Friday night for a trombone audition this weekend. It’s been nice to hear trombone practice wafting out from the basement guest room. I don’t often get to hear trombone played except from 4th graders in an elementary school band, so it’s a treat.
He tried blowing helium through his trombone. Apparently it does change the pitch just like it does with your voice. Jeremy and I were a little nervous that he was blowing helium through the trombone the night before a big audition, but Janos seemed pleased with the experiment.
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Saturday saw Sophie and her daughter who has Rett Syndrome for lunch.
Her daughter, who is 2.5 years old, was in a great, happy mood for a couple of hours and then turned on a dime and went into inconsolable crying for about 45 minutes. I had forgotten, or blocked out, all the inconsolable crying that Edda did at that age, all hours of the day and night for 2-3 hours at a time. I tried to tell Sophie that, for most girls, the crying does end – it does take a couple of years. And I held and rocked her daughter for 20 minutes or so knowing full well that whatever I did, it probably wouldn’t work to soothe her. And 45 min after she started, the terrible mood ended and all was well.
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Today, brunch with some of my favorite people. We look pretty good for being tired moms.
Brothers who all have a sister with Rett Syndrome. I don’t think they ever talk to each other about their special needs sisters, but they love talking to each other.
Birthday girl!