December is here

But I'll back up a bit, to catch you up on what's been going on here in the Towne House.

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I did go shopping on Black Friday.  Joann's had a great sale on fabric, so I waited 1/2 hour for the doors to open, and then waited 2 hours to have fabric cut. LOL  But  you aren't going to find a friendlier place to wait in line on Black Friday, so it was cool.

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I got Steve a step ladder at Lowe's (Home Depot was out of the one they had advertised), bought Lil'Kinz at Walgreens (buy one get one free!), and a waffle maker at CVS (on sale for $19.99, I used $10 ECB's and paid $9.99, and got $10 ECB's back!--and it works great!).

Then I decided to go to Toys R Us.  Crazy.  It took me 5 minutes to get the items that I wanted, and TWO HOURS to check out.  CrAzY. 

I did end up running to Wal-Mart much later in the day, but that was because the guinea pigs needed hay.

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Saturday I had a show in Foxboro--home of the New England Patriots.   I was back home by 3pm or so.  I remember being busy the rest of the day, but honestly can't remember what I was doing!

Sunday we taught Sunday School, and then I had a show in Seekonk.  We had the first sleet of the season, but driving wasn't bad.  The girls had two of their friends over, and we were bringing all 5 kids to Awana, and their mom would pick the girls up there.

BUT before we could go, I told the kids to FINALLY clean the guinea pigs' cages.  They emptied the cages, and THEN informed me that there was no clean bedding.  How did they use all of that bedding so quickly, and then NOT let me know they were out????  To say that I was upset was an understatement.  It was just such a stupid thing. 

So, while they were at Awana (which Maddie refused to study for--more on that in a minute), I had to drive in the rainy, icky, sleety weather to the pet store.  Ugh.  Steve and I went to pick the kids up at 7:30, and once home, I made them stay up and clean the cages.  (Oh, we think that one of our guinea pigs is pregnant--not sure if we're excited or scared.)

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Monday morning, Steve had his physical.  He's been sick (coughing, trouble breathing) for about 3 months now.  He had a pulmonary test two weeks ago,and the results were in--ASTHMA.  He has an allergy test scheduled on 12/18 to see if he is allergic to the guinea pigs.  I'm dreading those results because if he isn't, it means that nothing has caused this sudden, adult-onset asthma.  But if it is the guinea pigs, I'm going to feel so sad that we have to get rid of them.  I hate to think of the kids being sad.  Good news--Steve's cholesterol is down to 209--from 254 18 months ago. Yay!

On Monday morning, I had a conversation with Maddie about Awana.  I've mentioned our issues here and here.  It turns out that in addition to giving me grief about studying for Awana and crying because she doesn't do as well as Patience, when she's at Awana, during the time when they're supposed to be studying and saying their verses, she's just been sitting there with her chin in her hand.  Her leader basically said that they haven't said anything to us because she's really such a joy to be around.  They love her.  But if she weren't such a great kid, they would have said something about her lack of effort.

So Maddie and I talked.  I told her that just going (which she does love) but not putting in her best effort was not acceptable.  She had a choice.  She could go, and put more effort into studying, regardless of what the results were (we just want to see her trying her best), and that I would help her as much as possible, OR she could not go.  That was it.  And she has chosen to not go.  I feel sad for her, because I know she's going to miss her friends and teacher.  But she is adamant that she does not want to do the work.  It's difficult for her, but the bigger issue is that, for whatever reason, she feels that she is competing with Patience, and when it comes to memorizing verses, Maddie comes up short.  I feel awful about this, but I couldn't let her keep going if she wasn't going to try.  And she had given up.  So we'll see how the next few weeks go.  Maybe she'll decide to go back & give it the old college try.  But it was a long, trying, tear-filled (on both sides) conversation.  Ugh.

I had a Pampered Chef meeting on Monday night.

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On Tuesday morning, it became evident that Maddie still wasn't feeling well, despite having finished a round of Zithromax last week.  I took her in and lo,and behold, she still has a double ear infection & sinus infection.  She also has to go in for allergy testing, as the Alavert & Nasonex aren't making a dent in her symptoms. (I completely blame Steve's shallow gene pool for all of these allergy problems! LOL)

She told the dr. that she wanted the antibiotics in pill form.  I picked up the meds before my Pampered Chef show; Steve was supposed to administer them.  I came home at 10pm to find out that Maddie had had a stomach ache, and he didn't make her take the prescription. 

I tried to get her to take the medicine this morning, but she took one look at those horse pills, and say NO WAY.  Sigh. I told her I was going to hold her nose and rub her throat like we do to make the cats take pills.  No luck. LOL  I had to call the dr. and get the liquid meds called into the pharmacy.  Which was a trip this morning that I didn't expect.

I came home, and remembered that Eli had to be at the allergist for his shots at 11:30.  We raced over there, came home, ate, and then went to bowling.  Patience beat Eli's high score. :)

Then we made a trip to Dollar Tree--tomorrow is the homeschool Christmas party, and the kids need a $1 gift for the gift exchange. 

Then I came home and had the horrible exchange with First National that I already blogged about.

Then my mom called and wanted me to meet her at Kohl's to pick out maternity tops for my sister.

Then I came home and made 11 dozen cookies for the cookie exchange that will take place at the homeschool Christmas party.

Then I watched Life.

Now I'm blogging, instead of doing the 100 other things I should be doing.

And now you're all caught up with The Towne House!