#421 - Lanterns

Our house occasionally has power outages, most famously on Thanksgiving Eve a few years ago (leaving us with a houseful of people and no way to cook the food we had purchased!). Thinking ahead, my fabulous in-laws gave us two lanterns, the kind you would take camping with you. So last night, with our 6-hour-blackout, we used our lanterns for the first time! They are Rayovac 18-watt twin tube lanterns, and they worked great. Our power stopped at about 8:30, as I was typing up the lemonade entry for the blog... TLG was still awake and it was a little spooky for him. We got him settled in with his flashlight and got the candles lit downstairs, then set up the lanterns! They put out a lot of light, and we ended up having one downstairs and one up. We set the upstairs lantern near the stairs to use as a nightlight for anybody who needed it, which really helped all of us (since none of us slept well). The power came back on about 2:00am and TLG got up to ask for more batteries for his flashlight. This morning's "Arthur" program on PBS featured a storyline about a blizzard where the electricity goes out, and TLG knew exactly what they were talking about. Then he saw the lanterns sitting in our kitchen, and he wanted to figure out how they work. Very timely program, and what a help those lanterns are!

#373 - Emergency?

As you probably know, TLG had his 3rd surgery in February and it was a great success. All the work the surgeon wanted to complete was done, and he has been healing quickly and completely. But I admit it, I am a worrywart of the first degree. This weekend I noticed some things around his scars that didn't look quite right. So this morning, I called UC Davis to ask a nurse about it. The receptionist didn't even let me talk to the nurse, and told us to come right down for an afternoon appointment! Well! Let me tell you how much I flipped out. I assumed this was an emergency and had a terrible time calming down. Turns out what I saw was just scarring and was completely normal, the surgeon actually made me feel quite silly for coming in to see him, but HEY you can't be too careful with MY CHILD. Right?!? This was the first time we had to rush to UC Davis - all our other visits were carefully planned - and that drive is not fun when you're a nervous wreck.

#23 - Not a new thing in sight

Well, I made it more than three weeks, but it's official - I didn't do anything new today. And that's my new thing for today. I've reviewed the day in my head, over and over, but there just isn't anything. Took the sniffly kiddo to day care, went to work, had lunch at home. Picked up the sniffly kid, tried on some new pants that arrived in the mail, ate dinner with the family. Watched a little t.v. Now it's bedtime and I've got nothing. Sorry, folks, I've failed you. I'll try harder tomorrow, but I'm not ashamed. I worked hard today and it was a nice day. Next time I don't choose to do something new, I may not admit it and just skip a posting day. And I will be O.K. with that.