Sunday, February 28, 2010

February Funk

Dear February 2010,
Good Riddance.
Sincerely, The J-Ms

FEBRUARY 2010

Freakish amounts of snow and Snow Days
Everyone doing their best to hold it together (some times more successful than others -- photo below taken on a good day... making cookies!). Oh, and 'E' also stands for Earthquake. We're still trembling, even though we're time and space away from the January 12 Haiti earthquake.
Basketball (and 2 boys' love-affairs with Lehigh b-ball games) replaced football, and baseball, at least for the time being. Basketball, basketball, basketball. Oh, and Black History Month, of course.
Really and truly, this month felt like an uphill battle every single day ALL MONTH LONG.
Under, unfortunately, sad circumstances we had what actually turned out to be a great (definitely the highlight of our month) impromptu trip to Massachusetts. Grandma Lorraine's was K & O's first family Memorial Service (profoundly sadly, it was Meera's third). But -- always the optimists -- as we left the church chapel Kyle proclaimed (totally genuinely) to the pastor, "That was the best funeral I've ever been to!!!!" (later she came and talked with me for awhile about our little Religious One). We really did wind up having a great trip-- including a fun 2-night stay in a nice hotel (with --jackpot!-- an indoor swimming pool) in Worcester with MorMor and MorFar, Auntie Stina, Mark, and Sadie. [Photo below = H with boys in hotel room during Meera's nap, before boys heading out with Braydon for a morning swim] Please please please do not leave nasty anonymous comments about how ashy their skin is. I know. Chlorine and February do that. Duh. We're aware of it. Please do not harass me about it because right about now I seriously cannot take the negative commentary. Trust me, I've got it covered.
Antibiotics. Need I say more? Sickness sucks. At one point, three of the five of us were on antibiotics. Several bottles of various prescription and over-the-counter meds were consumed by the J-M family. I don't think there has been one day during February that we've all been 100% healthy. That just totally, totally sucks. Miraculously, Owen has been the only one in the family who did not get sick (at all!) during February. Of course, he had a broken collar bone. But that's a whole other story. (and -- a positive note: we found out in February that his collar bone is 100% healed... so, that's good... and he's now --for better or for worse-- back to his full range of activities... including stuff like dish-washing... but also including driving all of us crazy with his crazy antics)
Reliving the Lion King over and over and over and over and over. (Oh, and there was that Ridiculous holiday, Valentines Day, in there somewhere too-- but, honestly, that kinda got lost in the snow day shuffle... plus, Braydon had been throwing up the night before, so that kinda put a damper on it too. ugh.)
Year two is quickly closing in on us. As of today, our baby girl is 21 months old. Which, truthfully, just feels so depressing. How, oh how, can that be? Can't Meera Grace just stay a baby forever???
P.S. Lucky for us our trusty coffee maker went on the fritz during February. At first this seemed like yet another thing to hate about this month. But, no! It was a blessing in disguise! We finally had a semi-decent excuse to buy that Keurig coffee maker we've been coveting. And oh how that Keurig made our last few days of February sooooooooooo much better than they would have been without it!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love love love our Keurig! Meera looks sooo much bigger in that last pic.

No negative comments about ashy skin here! The kids spend many many hours in any pool we have access too and the lotion can not keep up!

Amy said...

February is a funky month. Maybe that's why it's so short. We've had a lot of snow days too, and we live in TN.

I didn't even notice the ashy skin 'til you mentioned it. J's stays ashy all the time too plus he has eczema. What kind of lotion do you use? We are using Curel right now and the doc said to keep using that for now but buy Cera Ve once that's gone. He hates to put lotion on because it's cold. I try to warm it up in my hands first and we have put it in the microwave too.

Happy March!
Amy

Kathy Cassel said...

I put lotion on the twins at night but by morning they are already ashy. And we don't even have access to a pool.

ali said...

ohhh you poor bunch! march MUST be better than that! why would anyone give you crud about ashiness? jackson was K&O's age when he came home and ohhh the ashy skin battle.......it never ends and it gets pricey too. the hair, i think we've conquered. blue magic-$3.99anyway, have a WONDERFUL march! the Crawfords in NH.

anymommy said...

Whew, big month! If you find a way to keep them babies forever, can you let me know?

Karen Vitek said...

I hope we can all see a crocus, snowdrop or daffodil peaking up soon! Tell the boys to be on the look out for redwing blackbirds. They are the true first sign of spring!

Mamato2 said...

I am soooo with you on February! It was the sucky cherry on top of the sucky January! Now I hope March turns it all around :)

Stacey said...

wow, it's been crazy busy for you.

sorry for your loss.

my skin is horrible in the winter...people of all colours have issues with dry skin so i can totally relate...my skin is like a desert.

omg she's almost 2? i haven't been reading long but it seems like she was so little when i started. she's adorable.

Anonymous said...

Great post!

This is how I felt about January. I had 4 deaths of people who were in my life. I just wanted the month to be over!

I love your blog!