I was sick

I can't even remember the last time I had to take 3 consecutive days off from work. Dang!

This was a weird flu - I caught it from Connor, who started with a fever on the 16th, and progressed to nausea & vomiting. He still has some congestion & coughing a week later.

I started with the fever on the 21st, but I had loss of appetite, and it didn't go to the nausea part (hooray?). The fever came & went though, with a lot of achiness and sleeplessness. So NyQuil was definitely needed. I spent 3 days in bed, and didn't get a lot of anything done, which always irks me.

Saturday Lee's folks came over to install the neat cupboard Pop made out of the leftover wood from the old cupboard in the old bathroom (sorry-confusing if you'd never seen it). We put in the new cupboard where the entrance to the hallway used to be (still confusing..). No one would know there was ever a hallway there now, between the cupboard on one side, and a shower on the other :)

Mom & Pop had gotten their flu shots so they said they were fine with coming into our fluish home. Trevor caught the flu on the 22nd with the fever, but it went away, so we sent him to school on the 23rd. Then I had to go pick him up early from school and we both slept the rest of the day. Ugh.

Anyway - I was back to work today. As I said, Connor still has some congestion & coughing, I just have a little coughing (not the chest ones that hurt anymore), and Trevor is almost over his congestion & coughing too. Lee & Diana stayed away from us, so hopefully they are not going to get it!

I'll blog some more interesting stuff than this soon.

Braces off!

Finally! Trevor went in to the orthodontist, and they took off his braces - Hooray!

He's had braces for at least 5 years. He's graduating High School this year, and I had held off on getting his Senior Pictures done, in hopes of being able to do them without the braces on. I'm glad we can take some nice photos now!

Trevor doesn't mind wearing glasses - I don't think he's interested in moving on to contact lenses, like Diana.

In a couple of weeks they should have his retainer ready. He still has some braces on the back molars, to help with keeping his teeth on track. I don't know how long those will stay on. I had a retainer on my bottom teeth for 2 years after I got my main braces off (and my bottom teeth are crooked again anyway).

In any case, he has a great looking smile now! Yay!

From Cecelia's Troop :)

Thanks for giving Cecelia her first real opportunity to cross the atlantic. Her two traveling companions, Rheann and Rachel, have not been heard from in a very long time. Cecelia is our last hope. The troop is still raising money for the trip, so she has time to make it there before we do. I know she will enjoy some girl scout companionship at Thinking Day. Thanks again.

Got Her!

Today Diana & I went down to visit family and we found the geocache with the Girl Scout Travel Bug! Yay! The little doll was made by another girl scout troop in Florida, and their troop will be heading to Switzerland to a Girl Scout World Center - they made 3 different dolls they are tracking in hopes of finding them in geocaches in Switzerland.

We know another (real life) girl scout who will be heading next month to the Girl Scout World Center in London. She has offered to take Cecelia (the travel bug) along for a free ride in her luggage. So we'll help her cross over the States & Atlantic and hopefully eventually to Switzerland.

But first, we'll be celebrating Girl Scout Thinking Day on February 22nd. There should be at least 100 girls in attendence, and we'll try to see if we can have them sign a card (at least troop #'s) to attach to Cecelia. That way, when she meets up with her own troop again, they'll see she got to meet other girl scouts along the way.

Fun!

ChocolArt

Friday night, we volunteered at ChocolArt, a local fund-raiser for Early Intervention. This is put on by the Education Services District, and it's an evening of chocolate & art.






Besides eating the chocolate, there is also a silent auction and cooking demonstration. There was a live jazz band & quilts on display as well.

Last year, only Diana & Renee were available to work - and you really DO work! Amanda & Mary had said they really wanted to help the next time, so I signed them all up.

The girls came over after school, got dressed in nicer clothes and ate spaghetti before we headed off. This year they were responsible for the chocolate fountain (first picture), their own tables, and the drink station. No one got any tips this year, but all the leftovers they could eat!! And a nice Thank You card & valentine heart box.

The girls told me and the announcer made sure people knew they were Girl Scouts helping out.

There were people I knew from work, as well as friends there, and we were on our feet from 5:45 to 9:30. By the end of the night, everyone was pretty tired and had sore feet!

However, they are all still excited to do it again next year, and Girl Scouts got some nice PR for the older girls.

Hooray!

Working Girl

As previously mentioned, Diana has been working to earn money for her trip to Germany, coming up in June. For the last 2+ years she's been doing a paper route every day after school, and then Sunday mornings. Her customers think she's great, and one of the best paper delivery people they've ever had. Some folks would leave her candy or a soda in their newspaper box. It was a good job for a 14-16 year old.

However, it got old. So she went around and filled out applications at the local pizza place & Subway. She talked about trying for other things, but you know how it is when you're a teen - between school, chores, Girl Scouts, and whatever, you get distracted. Consequently, she hadn't found another job yet.

Then on Tuesday, I was actually out sick, and got a phone call from our neighbor. Their family has a Comic shop downtown, and a friend of theirs was looking for someone reliable to work part-time in their office & run errands around downtown. She suggested Diana, and even though they'd had problems hiring teens in the past, they said to go ahead and have Diana call them.

We had a Girl Scout meeting on Tuesday (Happy Birthday Mary - I'm glad that tub of ice cream is gone!!) and afterward, I had Diana give this guy a call. Diana sounded confident & clear on the phone, so he asked her to come the next day after school for an interview. Diana was actually very nervous about the whole thing! Then she & I went to the store to get her a few clothes that work better for office attire, since I didn't think her cargo zip off jeans & Hello Kitty T-shirt would be the best choice for an interview.

On Wednesday after school, I drove her over to the the office downtown. It's about a 10-minute walk from the high school, and about 20 minutes from our house. He's a lawyer, and Diana had a 40-minute interview with the secretary and the boss. I waited in the car & knitted while Diana was in there. She came out really excited mouthing, "I got the job!!" Then we had to go to the store & get her more office clothes, since she really didn't have anything. Plus they have to be clothes that she can wear to school and then walk to work in, anyway.

We celebrated by getting her favorite thing for dinner. Spinach Dip & Sourdough bread (and other sandwich stuff). She started on Thursday, they were okay with her coming in later after Japanese club. They were impressed by her 3.98 GPA, that she's president of the Japanese club, and that she's going to Germany - they will hold the job for her during the month she's gone. She's earning minimum wage, and working 2-3 hours, 4 days a week (8-12 hours a week).

Trevor is taking over the paper route.

We're very proud of our working girl!! Oh, she'll probably finally get her cell phone now. I don't want her running around by herself without a way to contact someone if she needs that.