Not Much Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and so I've had to think about what I'm most thankful for this year. But I have to tell you, I'm coming up short right now. Today has not been a good day. I hurt, physically, mentally and spiritually.

A little back story. We've been trying to get my younger brother over to the US to study. The US embassy in Cape Town keeps denying his visa. We have tried everything possible and even went to a senator and got a congressional letter for him. It was the last thing we could do, and this morning we found out they denied him again. This has so many repercussions for my family I can't even begin to list them. The completely frustrating thing is that they won't even give him a visa to come visit us. Point being - I have no idea when I'll ever get to see him again, and my girls will never know their Uncle Jeremy. My heart feels like 1000 rubber bands have been wrapped tightly around it. I can't stop crying.

Also, Mack's military orders changed and I've learned that any time something like that happens you literally have to hold the hands of the people who have to change things in the system to ensure that we still get paid etc. Long story short, hand holding wasn't enough this time and for the second month in a row we haven't gotten paid. We were told that it was all sorted and we would get paid on the 25th, but the ball got dropped somewhere and we won't be paid until the 5th of Dec now. That's a long time when you're already working with nothing.

And, along with our pay getting screwed up, our health insurance went right down with it, so we haven't been covered this month. Trust Taz to pick this month to get a mysterious rash all over her body. She developed a rash on her back about 2.5 weeks ago, but had no other signs of something wrong. Because our insurance had lapsed, I spoke to a doctor rather than took her in. The doc said it was probably an allergic reaction and we shouldn't worry. The rash got progressively worse, moving to her stomach and down her arms and legs, but then started to heal. I was just starting to not worry, when last night she got a different rash (almost like hives) all over her body and she developed a fever of 103F. This morning I finally caved and took her to the doctor (we'll see what it ends up costing us) only to have the doc want a second and then third opinion (from a contagious disease specialist no less), only to be told that she more than likely has the chickenpox. Phew! No contagious disease (or meningitis) but, that we are not to let her come into contact with any other children and to try and keep her away from Little Miss H. So, there go our Thanksgiving plans. No delicious turkey dinner for us tomorrow. Instead - boxed mac and cheese.

Oh and to add insult to injury, I was supposed to take all the pies to TG dinner and I had already baked half of them. So there goes my weight loss that I worked so hard on cause I'll probably console myself by eating a whole Dutch Apple Crumble tomorrow. Sigh!

But, I do have two beautiful little girls that I love with all my heart. I am thankful for that.

Fun and Games

Last weekend Mack and Allyson ran the Moab Trail 1/2 marathon and not to be left out of the fun and adventure, the whole family decided to go and have a little red rock fun. The weather wasn't the best, but we made the most of it anyway. The beauty of red rock country always takes my breath away, no matter how many times I've seen it. It is so austere and different from any other part of the world I've seen, yet incredibly captivating. It makes my little amateur photography self want to go a little shutter crazy.

Okay enough of that, here are some of the snapshots we took of the weekend.

Heidism

Little Miss H woke up early this morning. She seems to wake between 5:30am and 6am needing to poop almost every morning. (wish I could sleep train her out of that one.) Well this morning was no exception. She woke , I got up, we hung out together, she pooped. But, this morning when I went to look for a nappy in the diaper bag, there were none. I keep her diapers in Taz's room, but Taz was still fast asleep and Heidi was going, "DADADADADADADADADADA." I picked her up and whispered to her, "You need to be quiet now cause we don't want to awake Taz okay?" She looked at me and then whispered, "dadadadadadadadada", till we were out of Taz's room when she picked up the volume again.

It was a pretty classic moment for me. I had a good laugh. Maybe I'm just too tired.

Toofy

Little Miss H has officially cut her first tooth. No one has actually seen it yet, but I felt it this morning. Precious! She was so sick and snotty this last week - at least now she has something to show for it.

Big Smiles

Little Miss H reached another milestone just a few minutes ago. Yes people, Taz's life just got a whole lot more complicated. I think I'm going to hear the words, "No H. No thats mine." Alot more from now on.

Where'd It Go?

Yesterday during Arts and Crafts time, (I'm calling it that cause it makes me sound like a better mother.) I left my dearest Tazling playing with her playdough so I could clean the kitchen a bit. When I returned to play with her, about half the playdough was missing. I asked her what had happened to it and she said, "I don't know." We looked all over the house and I couldn't for the life of me find the missing dough. I even told Mack to keep a look out for it when he got home last night. A little before dinner, I hear Taz say, "Hey whats this in here?" And, lo and behold we find the missing playdough.

(Note: When you allow your toddler to pick out her own shoes, she chooses something like these. Joy.)

Halloween 2011

It was a beautiful day which was a really good thing, because I don't think I would have been inclined to take Taz trick or treating if it was raining again this year. My child made it easy on me this year - all she wanted was to wear her costume from last year. I was totally fine with that. So Taz was once again a - Ba-euuuuuuutiful butterfly (as she puts it). Heidi was also easy - she wore a hand-me-down from her cousin Maeve. Even though I didn't put in much effort, they were still totally adorable.

Taz was super excited to go trick or treating and was really annoyed that we tried to make her eat a little supper first. I know, how rude of us?

Eventually we hit the streets, but she was already miffed and so would walk up to people, give them her angry eyes and say trick or treat in a very gruff voice, and then say a very sulky thank you.

I sat her down on the pavement and we had a little chat about how people didn't want to give candy to grumpy little girls and that she needed to be happy. She perked right up and ran to the next door. Unfortunately she was wearing her sparkly pink shoes with lights in them and was looking at her feet when she ran, aaaaand didn't see the car right in front of her and ran smack into its boot. I laughed, giggled, chuckled and tried to stifle my amusement. I asked her if she wanted to go home, but she was adamant that her candy bucket wasn't full yet and we should press on. So, instead of having a grumpy trick or treater, I had a little girl that would burst into tears each time the door was opened. Then I'd have to explain that she ran into the back of a car. More giggles and Taz telling me how not funny it was.

Long story short. We had fun and Taz has a bucket full of candy.

Grammy Art

My Mother-in-law's birthday was last Sunday. I thought it was Monday (oops my bad). Anyway, Taz got creative with some glue and rice and we made cookies (Halloween ones) to wish Grammy a "Happy Birthday".