Frozen at The White House

I was going to share our drama of late, but still not ready to do that. I am considering filing harassment charges against the school so it's probably better to not blab about it until I make a decision. Do know that despite best efforts on the part of some staff, Elijah is, as of today, doing good and has made the basketball team.

In other news....

I've been so busy it seems. I go down to the school three days a week to volunteer and now I've started going to the gym beforehand so my work time at home is limited. I am falling behind so fast I think I'm ahead!!

This is how things look around here at 4:30pm. Well, actually I think it is earlier that the moon is out and it is dark, but that's when I took this photo.

We are trying to fit in working on the house with all the other things that seem to break added to kid stuff we have to go to. This was the kitchen (ripped out and moved downstairs) and will be Elijah's room. The wall on the right was added this past weekend. Homer builds and I have clean-up duty.

 There is stuff everywhere. Hard to be organized when the rooms aren't done and things have no where to be. Dismantled the weight set to go downstairs, but first the freezer needs to go outside. Asked Nick to do it a month ago. Looks like it's up to me if I want things to happen.

 How many times have you seen this area that is to be Emily's new room destroyed and cleaned? The little ones need their rooms finished so they have somewhere to put their toys. I just tossed them all into buckets for now to get them out of the way of wall building.

 

 

This is my third day going to the gym and each morning I get to see a beautiful sunrise at a lovely -20* below F. This morning I pulled over for the photo... that is the University of Alaska-Fairbanks on the hill. The orange glow on the snow is from the street lights.



Yesterday I was busy doing things like taking my son pizza for lunch.

Took some to Olivia & Lucas, too, and then watched Olivia's class while they ate so the teacher could get an extra half an hour alone.

Later that night was our Cub Scout Pack meeting. The boys started with making paper airplanes.

The the Boy Scouts came and talked about first aide.

  The finished with a uniform inspection (yes, I was frantically sewing early in the day).

Lucas is wearing his dad's Cub Scout pants. Granma Claudia sent his old uniform to us so they are around 44 years old and still look brand new. Lucas was very proud to be wearing them. He was the only Scout (out of about 17) that got 100% on his inspection. :)

I then ran off with Emily to Elijah's football banquet. There was a big spread of food (forgot to take a photo) and then we moved into the auditorium. That's Elijah in the backwards black cap with red bill.

The Seniors were given awards...I think they said there were 26 of them! Next the coach talked about each player and then gave MVP awards. We didn't leave the school until 9:20pm!! (Elijah had been there since 7:30am.... school all day followed by a 3-hour basketball practice and then the banquet).

Emily and I then ran to the store for bread and milk to get home in time for the 10:00pm Parenthood. I really like the actors in that show and right now the focus is on a character with breast cancer which is emotionally gripping.

I am enjoying working out. I'm using a program that tracks exercise and calories, and it's very discouraging to see plain and simple how/why I've gotten to be obese and just how hard (at 45) it is going to be to lose some of it. I'm really hating the mirrors in the gym. They make me sad because in my mind that is not how I look. My daughter and I also talked about a make-over. She very politely told me how old my haircut makes me look. One day I was 25, young and thin and pregnant with my first child. Moments later I'm 45, fat and haggered with five kids. Where did the years go?

Do you have any idea how hard one has to work at NOT being depressed at -20* below in the dark, obese and old? With that said I'm putting one foot in front of the other. Got a lot to do, a lot to clean.... best get a move on. No time for moping about!!