Pammie

Geez – I am that far behind.

The first thing we did on Thanksgiving morning was the Charlotte Turkey Trot which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, an organization that is near and dear to my heart, given that my bestie has CML and I would love for there to be a cure so she’s not on the daily nasty drugs anymore.

The Kidlet, CK’s kidlets and hubby, and I did the 1 mile fun run.  DaHubby did the 8K.

Here is TheKidlet crossing the finish line:

OK so after that, we went to CK’s house for dinner, with KK’s parents and Omi (grandmother, in German).  We just love Omi, she is so wise and cool, and sweet.  KK’s parents, well – that’s a whole ‘nother story and we end up over there for moral support more often than not when there are family gatherings at the K’s house.

When I pulled of the pictures of DaHubby having a good time in the ER for the last post, I noticed … well, some pictures. A lot of them.  So the next few posts are going to be pictures and stories that I haven’t shared with you yet.

Maybe you’ll even get to meet Henry, as promised.

What was supposed to be a weekend of revelry and unabashed debauchery … yes, I’ve always wanted to find a use for the word debauchery, lol …. turned into “that weekend when I got stitches for the first time”.

Yes, that.

So, I was making salad, prepping for our friends’ (J and G) annual pig roast.   Salad, since I don’t cook, is usually my thing to bring.  Last week, I decided since I’d been making so many salads, I’d get a mandoline for slicing things.   My friend C has one and it looked so neat!

You’ll notice, the mandoline comes with a food guard.  You see where this is going, right?  Before the first cucumber was completely sliced – “OH HOLY SHIT MOTHER EFFER”, followed by a frantic text to DaHubby, who was at the pool with The Kidlet and her bestie.  They rushed home, he took the tissue off of my finger, and I said “It’s numb.  Let’s go to the ER.”

We were in a room within half an hour, thinking this was a great sign for an in and out ER visit.  Don’t ever let that fool you.  By the time we arrived at the pig roast, which was slated to begin at 4, it was 9:15.   Around midnight, the lidocain wore off, and I was hurting.  Our plans of all-day revelry had been reduced to 2.5 hours.  DaHubby did manage to amuse himself during the wait, though -

DaHubby, in a sincere display of protectiveness for his clumsy wife, proclaimed to all that we were disposing of the new kitchen gadget.  Awww hell, no.  It’s not the mandoline’s fault that I didn’t follow standard safety procedures.

Note to self:  use the food guard; it’s not nice to lecture people about using it and then not use it yourself.

Tonight it’s Tuesday.

Tuesdays are for American Idol, Glee, NCIS, or Lost.  Tuesdays are not, even when one has been home sick all day, for putting on public displays of nerdiness.  Well, perhaps not public, in the sense that my living room is not public, but there are people here in the form of TheKidlet (who doesn’t know that it’s nerdy) and DaHubby (who does know but is wise beyond his years and doesn’t say) or …. C’s hubby K, who stopped by earlier.

And busted me watching The Dead Zone.

Streaming, from Netflix, via the Wii.

Geek, meet nerd.

Now, having said that, I can probably bribe K into not telling anyone what he saw.  He’s pretty bribe-able.  I can definitely convince DaHubby to not say anything, I mean, it embarrasses him just as much as me, right?  It should.

……. so anyway, to distract you from my nerdness, I shall announce that we have a new family member.  No, it’s not a purse.  I mean, I do have a new Kate, but that’s not what I’m announcing.  I haven’t mentioned Henry here yet.

And given that I have no pictures of the little scoundrel yet, I will save that for the next post, so you can see his beautiful warm brown eyes yourself.

I’ve written before about the friends that I’ve made here – and it seems like every time I turn around I have another story that exemplifies that wonderful group that we’ve found ourselves a part of.

Another case in point:  two days before TheKidlet’s birthday party, DaHubby and I realized that, because of various reasons, she had TWO kids (out of six invitees) say yes, they were coming.   This, after having to cancel the original date because she had the stomach flu.

We had opted for a party at Michael’s craft store and I was saddened for her that there would just be the three of them.  AND…. three 9 year olds?  An odd number of girls is a Recipe for Disaster.  I talked to my bestie, CK, about it and she simply said “You know what to do.  Activate the phone tree.”

I texted GH, CC, and JO – and within four minutes, LITERALLY, she had five additional children coming to her party.  They had a ball, TheKidlet was thrilled, and I called birthday party number nine a success.  Consider me moved to tears repeatedly by these women.

As an aside, I highly recommend Michael’s for parties.  Not expensive, they do everything, and it’s all over in three hours.

After the party, it was Game Night at GH’s house.  There were new people there, out of town guests.  Our kids …. all upstairs playing, the new kid decided to either hit or kick each child present at least once.  The five year old was hit in the face with a shoe.

Our kids?  Locked him in the bathroom.  Now, of course I don’t condone vigilantism in any form, and they have all been reminded that getting an adult is the proper course of action …. but really, when the kids aren’t around, there are high-fives among the adults for the fact that our kids all worked together to take care of a problem.  And warm fuzzies that we know our kids all have each others’ backs.

And lastly, a rant:  we get together for breakfast on Fridays when we can.  We have a favorite restaurant, a favorite waitress, we each have our favorite meals.   This morning, we met for breakfast:  CK, GH, KSC, and myself.  A rare treat these days with my new work schedules, but we made it happen.  Talk this morning was tame, comparatively speaking.  We noticed early on that there were kids behind us and that probably tempered our conversation, however subconsciously.

GH has health problems, medical issues that are treated by a top team of doctors and that require medication.  She discussed the medications briefly at breakfast.  We walked outside when we were done, and there was a note on GH’s car.  This note basically said that her health issues are a result of the things that she says.  And then referred her to a church’s website.  WTF?!?  Who says something like that – something so judgmental and yet so cowardly?  I mean if you’re gonna sit in judgment, do it openly; don’t leave an anonymous note.   I sincerely hope that the entire congregation of this church isn’t as moronic as this person, or there’s a group of people who are cranky from trying to live up to an unattainable ideal of perfection.  Sigh.  This is why I don’t belong to a church and have a dislike of organized religion.