I'm so behind

My blog hasn't been forgotten, it's just been shunted way low on the list of priorities for several weeks now. I don't even think I could remember everything to recap what has kept me from being here. I will say though that illness was the major deterrant. Fionna had a nasty bout of bronchitis that just lingered and lingered (to the tune of like 3 weeks) and eventually involved her being placed on oxygen here at home. Luckily though, the combination of the oxygen and several rounds of steroids finally helped her get healthy enough to return to school. Other than that, it's been garden-variety colds but they certainly do take their toll after awhile. The other reason I avoided blogging for a bit was I felt like I was focused on sad news rather than good. One of the major sad events that I feel I at least must honor by mentioning is that our dog, Mo, was hit by a truck while I was walking him one evening (he pulled off the collar/leash), and we had to have him put to sleep (his leg was shattered completely, up to the shoulder). Mo, I will always have such guilt and sadness over what happened. You were a loving, joyous dog, and I miss you. Okay, I'm putting that behind me as best as I'm able. Onward...

So...Halloween. The kids loved it as always and were very into every aspect of the holiday. We got to celebrate early at Fionna's school's "Fall Festival" which involved lots of booths and games and fun. And then the actual trick-or-treating -- Grady and I were sick so it was somewhat subdued but still fun. Our neighborhood has finally grown to the point we were able to trick-or-treat here (we were some of the first to move here and it was a scant neighborhood for several years).

This brings me to Thanksgiving. We had a nice, quiet family day with a traditional Turkey dinner that Lenny mostly cooked. Then, the kids and I headed north to my parent's house for the weekend (Lenny didn't come as he was on call). We got some true cold there with some snow, electrical outages and really low temps (7 degrees on Sunday morning!!!). The kids loved every bit of it.

And now...we're home and the kids are in full xmas swing. My house is a flurry of paper scraps as they craft many paper snowflakes. Every day, there's a request for a new Christmas craft or project, and I'm sure they'll convince me to get a tree and decorate soon.

Well, Ainslie has now awoken (Grady assures me he had nothing to do with this), and it's almost time to go pick up Fionna from school anyway. I hope this is the end of my blogging dry spell, and you'll see me here again soon.