Edda is sick. Maybe?

Edda got sent home from school today. Generally she’s been doing a lot better, lots of smiles and laughter which has made the rest of us happy too. But I think she caught the bug that Jeremy’s had for the past few days – no fever, just a little touch of hoarseness in her voice.

We are getting ready to celebrate her birthday with our 2nd annual pancake breakfast. Emy helped us make the invitations. We are trying to get 100 people to stop by the house.

I learned to hang an IV bag today. And give a morphine injection. (!)

Sending snow.

Kiki! We got your postcard and we are sending you some snow!

Jeremy in his new outfit procured from Sears. Black shirt and orange pants – this photo does not do it justice, really. Crazy. Who is this guy? Got a million compliments from his co-workers. Now to just get glasses from Warby Parker.

Tax Time, New Job …

Well, tax time is coming.  With 3 years of absence due to our overseas assignments, I came back to use turbo tax.  I just bought a copy for “home and business”.  I also downloaded all tax information from our banks and financial institutions today – sorting them out and ready to go.

I am still looking for a place to stay more permanently.  Everything I am kind of missing something – of course, it is Rena 🙂

Bert bert.

Spent the morning with Bert. He’s going to be far away from me for a few months, so I thought I’d squeeze in a visit today. I brought him hot, fresh donuts from Krispie Kreme. I’m pretty sure he loves me best for it. Beautiful 60 degree day today! Just want to be outside all the time. I’m happy Vince is outside camping this weekend and not pinned to his computer – it was suppose to be a “cold campout” in an unheated cabin, but I’m sure it’s been just fabulous.

Took Edda to the mall where we shopped for clothes at Sears. All the winter stuff is 60% off  – rush on over now and you guys can all look as hip as we do in all our Land’s End clothes.

Nursing school –

Edda seemed better today – at home at least, school reported sadness and crying. Sigh. Thanks for sending all your happy vibes to her – she needs it!

I wish someone told me 30 years ago that it’s pretty much half as much work to aim for a “B” in a class than trying to get an “A”. There really is only so much time in a day and I’m enjoying school so much more now that I write a 3 page paper in 30 min – proofread it for 30-60 seconds and then hit SEND! Or I have to perform a skill – wound change, blood pressure measurement, etc. I prep for 30 min and then just do it (and I usually sign up for the first slot of the test cycle, no one is fighting me for that space). It feels like I’m so underprepared, but I’m doing just fine. It’s also a relief to hear from the prof that last term, out of the 150 in her class, only 10 people got “A”s. So I’m not fighting for that “A”, I have other stuff that I need to do. All that time in my youth I spent getting the last 5 points of my grade. I could have been out there having a beer and watching football instead.

My kick-ass assessment lab professor. NP in the ER. Seems totally exhausted all the time (note fully sugared Mountain Dew in hand) – I want to be her, but less exhausted.

All of nursing school is worth it now that I’ve learned how to use the damn ear scope. Now maybe I can check Edda’s ear for infection without hauling her to the pediatrician.

Turnips.

Look at this beautiful photo of turnips my friend Lauren took at the farmer’s market yesterday. Turnips are so pretty…

Our household computer system is a little broken. Everything works – kind of. Jeremy’s starting to be a little obsessed with trying to fix it. He’s up past his bedtime trying to figure out the configuration of the wireless network. I’m listening to a lot of talk about routers. This past weekend I also took a look at the kitchen sink and a bunch of the piping is corroded because I let the leak go on a little too long, so I might have to replace the whole faucet. I didn’t take it apart because once I start, there is really no way to stop because we can’t really have the kitchen sink not work for weeks while I dither around trying to figure out what to buy at Home Depot. So in the next few weeks, the internet in the house might go down as well as the kitchen sink. Our productivity might take a dive.

Really, I’m just going on and on about the wireless and the kitchen sink because I think Edda’s back on her crying jag. After a year or so of being so wonderfully and blissfully happy – just laughing and smiling at everything we did – Edda seems to be back to crying for entire afternoons. We try to do for her all the things she loves, Jeremy cooks and feeds her all her favorite things. I think she’s tired and I try to put her to bed all hours of the day. Nat takes her out in the snowy weather for a walk and some fresh air. We set up three screens for her, a TV, an iPhone and and iPad all showing different shows that she loves. We give her Tylenol or Motrin when we’ve run out of ideas. Nothing works. And it’s incredibly sad and frustrating to hear her cry and cry for a long, long time. But then after a few hours, she seems to calm down and be fine. I’m a little resigned that it’s another mood that will be unknowable and unsolvable that will last for months. Jeremy thinks her mood will only last for today and that tomorrow is a new day and maybe it’ll be a great day for Edda.