The Breakfast Club

Dave says we’ve become one of those families that lives from crisis to crisis. And sadly, this is true. We’ve been plagued by one thing or another these past few months, and we are getting far too well acquainted with the emergency rooms around here. So I know any day now, people will start hiding and/or running in the opposite direction when they see us coming. And they’ll ignore our calls, avoid our eyes, and NEVER, EVER ask us "how are you". It’s inevitable. Which is why blogging about my various crises will become more and more important to my emotional well being...as it will be my only outlet. Just a fair warning...

So let’s start with the latest crisis which occurred over lunch JUST TODAY! Kind of exciting eh? Emily calls and says to come quick because Rachel has fallen coming out of school and hurt her arm. So I do what any good mother would do...I finish the email I’m writing, tell our receptionist I’ll be back later, and hurry home. And sure enough she has a deep, ugly gash on her elbow and it’s still bleeding so I try not to swoon as I evaluate the damage. Is it awful that the first thing I say to her is, "Boy I wish I’d had my camera when you fell"? I WAS kidding but I’m not sure she saw the humor in it.

So anyway, I determine the injury does not warrant a doctor visit (whew!), then rummage through our bathroom drawers for first aid items. That’s when I find four, yes FOUR, Animal Kingdom band-aids, which I promptly wave in those kids’ faces because they’re always telling me we have no band-aids, and I like to prove them wrong even in the midst of emergency situations. But unfortunately, these band-aids are for paper cuts or suchlike, and not for deep oozing wounds. So I open up some gauze packs (which look like they’ve seen better days, but still are clearly marked STERILE) and find an Ace bandage and patch that thing up nicely. Of course, after wrapping the bandage around her arm about 17 times, she wonders aloud if we can cut the bandage to fit...and I am so proud of her at that moment because I know that CNA training of hers has come in handy. So, another crisis neatly resolved.

And speaking of being a proud mom, I also had cause to feel that way this morning when Emily left early to serve detention. She assured me that this was no big deal, because she didn’t lie, cheat or steal. She just forgot her name badge three times AND she turned herself in...instead of trying to hide it like all the truly bad kids. I mean she made it sound like serving this detention was more of a BADGE OF HONOR, and all the honest kids would be there, and so I couldn’t help but be proud of her "accomplishment".

I took both girls to Wichita this past weekend to see my niece Meagan, who is home from Africa for a few weeks. Meagan is a master game-player, but I think I’ve found something I can challenge her on. And it’s Big Boggle. Yes, I sort of dominated there. I mean, one time I found the word UNFORGIVEN. You know I don’t like to brag, but do you know how many points that’s worth??

But anyway, since we were in Wichita, we also decided to do some dreaded prom dress shopping on Saturday afternoon. If you’ve ever shopped for prom dresses, you are well aware that the process can be quite grueling. And I have TWO daughters going to prom, so it’s double the dress-trying-on, double-the-pain. Okay, I know I sound awful. And we did have some fun in the process (even though I couldn’t get either of them to try on that scalloped potato dress). But seriously, a good dress is so hard to find...especially when you’re as cheap as I am. So I’m happy to report that we eventually settled on a frothy pink/orange concoction for Emily, and a stylish black number for Rachel.

As for David, he is still slowly recovering from his surgery and weeks of inactivity. In fact, he can barely summon the energy to go to dances and friends’ houses, but he manages somehow. He also managed to captain his quiz bowl team to the quarterfinals in the first meet of the season. I was quite proud that he knew not only the NAME of the company in "The Office" but also the city in which the sitcom is situated. And it only annoyed me slightly that he didn’t have a clue that the Sistine Chapel was attached to St. Peter’s in Rome and that Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance artist who drew detailed sketches of the human anatomy, even though I took him to Italy and showed him these things IN PERSON last May.

And speaking of slow recoveries, Dave continues to make one too after his "ear attack" (two letters away from a heart attack, I always say). I can’t remember if I told you about that or not. It’s a REAL condition diagnosed by his ENT doctor whom some people affectionately refer to as Dr. Quackenstein, because of his sometimes unorthodox treatments, which in Dave’s case included oxygen and not too many people had heard of that for ringing in the ear. But after two $2,000 office visits to this ENT, Dave is actually better. So that’s why we aren’t complaining to some healing arts board somewhere.

Not much to tell about me...except that I’m sick of static electricity and hate my new coat, but don’t tell Dave because he was so sweet to pick it out for me.

I did have a dilly of a lunch today...leftover honey-seared chicken from Pei Wei. And yesterday I had leftover pizza from Il Vicino. Yum with a capital Y. It was like one of those back-to-back championship things...on a little bit smaller scale.