This week.

So, I never told you how the party went. We had 96 cupcakes: Yellow, chocolate, strawberry, and cherry chip. We had two kinds of spreadable icing: vanilla and rainbow chip. We had three kinds of squeezable icing: Pink, yellow and chocolate. We had heart shaped sprinkles and bead sprinkles and flavored marshmallows. Quite a spread. We set out a tarp, and a table with a pink disposable tablecloth in the living room. The kitchen had other snacks: sweet potato chips, chocolate covered walnuts, pistachio brittle (first time I had it - very yummy, but chewier than peanut brittle), cheez-its, and crackers with squeezable cheese...just in case you wanted to decorate something salty instead. We had a giant jug of apple juice, some small juice boxes, and root beer. And milk. And water. Three of Abbie's classmates showed up, and one brought her step-siblings. We also had our wonderful friends, the Frankes and the Shermans. We missed the Macneils very much, and sent them our happiest Baby Expecting thoughts. ^_^ My mom and aunt were there for a little while, but left just after the decorating started. They like getting home before dark. The party went very well, and Abbie and all her guests had a marvelous time.

This week, I worked. It hasn't been a very seasonal winter this year. We were debating whether it was going to be a late winter, or a mild one. I pointed out that if it were any later, it would have no choice but to be mild! I think it heard me. On Wednesday it rained, and then froze in the night. Thursday morning the roads were "Mostly Clear" according to MODOT, who are a bunch of liars. It was actually quite dangerous! I made it to work, but late. Not very. Just 8 minutes. Some people coming from the east said it took them as long as 2 hours just to drive to work! With the ice under the snow, everyone was going extra slow (or being towed out of ditches). No one can figure out why MODOT didn't treat the roads. There are rumors that we used up the budget last year when we had all the snow, but since it is January, and we just had our FIRST snow of the season, one would think that we would saved enough money to throw around a few cinders. Because the kids' school was cancelled, I had to leave work extra early to get home in time for Josh to get to work. And then I started to get sick.

I was sick on Friday. Much too sick to be at work. On my lunch break, I called Josh to ask about coming home right away. The problem was that we'd made plans to go out and eat after I got off on Friday. No one wanted to cancel that. So he talked me into staying at work. I begged some Motrin off a friend and it kicked in about my last half hour. The good news was that I really did feel better at dinner.

Today is Saturday, and I have mostly stayed in bed. Right now the kids are reading Highlights Magazine. Maybe if I don't exert myself today, I can still do taiko in the morning. I hope so. I'm going either way - I need to pay my dues for the year. And I wanna see if I can do a little exercise. I'm so afraid my back will go out if I don't get any. I tried to do some of my old, old, old physical therapy exercises at home....before I got sick.

Life is going along.... No job news so far.

Oh, and as soon as I wrote all that about the office girl, I immediately stopped caring about it. How funny. I spend so much energy worrying about other people. I was so upset when taiko was cancelled and then the babysitter wouldn't get the extra money! Do I really need to spend energy on someone who is awful to everyone? Not really.

Well, I need to get some medicine. This cold has settled onto my soft pallet. It is dangerously close to preventing me from breathing in any way. I must decongest!

Wishing all of you a pleasant evening, good health, and at least one happy event to look forward to in the future.