Okay, so now it's 9:01pm as I watched a few videos.
Where did I leave off...oh, the cancelled Colorado trip. Well, that got moved to President's Day, which was Feb. 20 or something. I ended up going and, although it was probably not worth it for the time I spent there, it was a good break from the kids. I decided to drive to Salina, KS that Thursday and stay at the Days Inn. I left the house around, actually, let me mention the "presentation" I gave Connor's class for Asia month.
I was pretty nervous about doing this, but it ended up all right. I was asked to come in and talk about Japan since Connor's class was learning about Asia in February. I said sure, but I wasn't sure what I would be doing. I ended up doing a super fast origami demo of a samurai hat and then the big thing was to teach them how to roll sushi rolls. I thought it was going to be a disaster, trying to teach his class and, as it turned out, the other pre-k class, how to roll seaweed with rice spread on it on a sushi mat. These are 5-year-olds...anywho, it actually went all right like I said and the kids had fun. Some even ate the roll and they all took it home. I would have loved to go the next day to hear reactions, but, alas, Connor got the flu so he missed the rest of the week. Oh, right, the flu.
We've basically been sick, someone in our house, since Thanksgiving, pretty much. I'm FINALLY about over this mucusy cough that I've been having, though I still get bouts here and there. Anyway, Laura got some bad stomach thing for a few days, and then Connor and probably her Mom, though we're not 100% sure about that. Emmeline and I somehow dodged that bullet and stayed relatively sick-free, aside from runny noses and slight coughs. We still kept her from school, though. Anyway, like I said, I wanted to hear from the parents if the kids said anything about my presentation, but no dice. I even made each of them a mini crane string, made up of 10 cranes hung on fishing wire with a bead at the end, and a paper clip to hang it from something. Yes, I used the Cranes for a Wish leftovers, but I still made it. They all liked it when I gave it to them.
So, after that, it was a couple of days before I left for CO. After staying in Salina, I left early-ish next morning to drop-off some Braum's ice creams that I brought for Ellen and Matt. I brought our cooler and got a 10-lb bag of dry ice, which I was skeptical about but it kept the ice cream like a rock. About 1/2, maybe a little more, was left when I got there. I guess it was all gone by the time Ellen came back from work. I got there at 1pm or so. I thought it would last longer than that in my cooler, but I guess not.
After getting lunch with Matt, I drove up to Chris' house. I stayed there for two nights. It was fun, but we really didn't do anything. Around this time, Chris's grandma wasn't doing so well, so his Dad flew out to CA. Also, his Mom's surgery was having some issues afterwards, so he was taking care of her periodically. So, again, we didn't do much other than hang out and sit around. I drove to Ellen's after that, on Sunday afternoon. We hung around and Ellen made dinner that took like an hour and half or something. She fell asleep while I was installing software for their new laptop and showing the cool new channel with movies and stuff on the Roku. We got ice cream at a place no one went before afterwards. It was pretty good. Then we watched some YouTube videos until it was time to go to bed. It was weird because it was such a short trip. The next morning I would be leaving at around 6:30 in the morning to get home at a reasonable time. I went to bed at like 11pm, thinking about how sucky driving that much with so little sleep would be. On the drive out and back, I listened to a bunch of different podcasts. The drive actually wasn't bad and it went pretty quick. I made a couple of stupid missed exits, especially on the way back that added like an extra 15 minutes. The crazy thing is that I made 2 wrong exits AT THE SAME SPOT both times. I just ran through the Kansas toll gate, too. I'm not sure how that's going to work. I didn't have any cash, so I was slowing approaching the toll booth trying to figure out what I was going to do, but the gate opened both times, so I just went through even though it was just for the Kansas toll tag owners. Oh well. I might get a bill in the mail.
So, yeah, it was a good break, but a lot of it was filled with driving.
Back at home, Connor's been doing well with the full days. He excited about them now and likes it better than the half-days, it seems.
The other reason 2017 is off to a bad start is that Laura's grandparents, both sides, aren't doing so well. One is in higher care than he was and the other, well, not doing well. That's why Laura left this morning to head to St. Louis, in case anything happened. I guess they are opting off of dialysis or something. Anyway, this kind of stuff is not my strong point at all. Of course, I'm here with the kids. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning today because of my damn allergies which, so far, has been the worse I've ever had here, I think. The trees have been blooming everywhere because of the warm winter and it's killing me. Literally, I'm waking up every morning at like 4, which seems like it's about the time the Zyrtec runs our or something since I take it the prior morning. I should start doing Flonase at night. I need to check the expiration on the one I got from a couple of years ago. Anyway, I hope this allergy goes away because I'm miserable from like 4 in the morning to about 9-ish when the meds I take in the morning kicks in. Here and there throughout the day, I get spikes of allergic sneezing and stuffiness. I should see if I can mix benadryl and zyrtec, because I'd totally take the benadryl at night since it makes me super drowsy anyway.
Well, that's about the wrap-up. Oh, my first book. Well, book #1. I finished it and Laura read it and said she liked it. I hope she is really telling the truth. I'm making the edits now, going through and making it better, hopefully. My goal, really, is to get this first book on Amazon by the end of the month and start some marketing, possibly, by creating a website for it and stuff. We'll see how the book is picked up, if at all. There are millions of books on Amazon, so it's naive of me to think that mine will get read by anyone at all...one can dream. Then, since it's an episodic-type story, my goal is to release a book every few months. We'll see how THAT goes with my laziness.
Other than that, finding a kindergarten for Connor is the other big stress for Laura and I, mostly Laura. All the good places are waiting-list places and the public schools aren't too good, although Edmond schools are fine with me. It's the OKC schools that are horrible.
I should get to bed. I fell asleep for like 10 minutes at 6pm tonight while I was winding down for bath.
I'll be back soon, perhaps with book #1 edited and finished...