It's been 7 hours and 15 days....

Quick, did anyone get the song reference?  I hope so because now I can't get it out of my flippin head!  Argh!  Sinead, please no more singing in my head!  Apparently, I'm showing my age today! lol!  Okay, it's really been quite longer since I've posted but it was catchy.   We'll just say it's been a while.  We've passed thru Christmas, New Years, and two birthdays.  Drama Queen turned 19 and moved back home (she's switching to a college closer to home and commuting this semester).  Southern Darlin' turned 11 and this was the big birthday. This was the year that she has officially been with us for more birthdays than not.   Some days it still seems crazy to me that she hasn't spent her entire life here.  She has wormed her way right into the family and it's not until questions about when she was a baby arise that I have to remind myself that we didn't meet her until she was 5.

Once again, I got to play mean mom.  I scheduled both girls for oral surgery over Christmas break.  What?? They were off school, why not?   Drama Queen got all four wisdom teeth out (the day before her bday... ooops) and she is super lucky and ended up with a nice case of dry socket as well.  Bonus!!  I was given access to her cell phone and given instructions to video tape her when she came out all goofy.  Sadly, she woke up and was fine.  I was just a tiny bit disappointed.  Southern Darlin', on the other hand, was enough laughter to make up for it.  She had 4 baby teeth pulled plus 3 exposures (where they cut into the gums, hook little brackets & chains onto the teeth that have decided to go completely sideways instead of down and hook the chains onto her braces).  Apparently she was not cooperative with the sedation.  She sat there just fine but would not go to sleep. Of course once they got her knocked out, she didn't want to wake up.  lol.  The dr came out and said he gave her enough meds to knock me & Daddy Chaos out.  Eeek!  That girl was all over the place.  Crying because she was scared (which was super sad), then wanting to sit up and just flopping all over.  She had double vision which she thought was quite hilarious and kept giving commentary. Blackmail, my friends, I have blackmail..

Thankfully both girls are healed up from oral surgery and we can finally *hopefully* move forward with Southern Darlin's braces.
 
We are all trying to adjust to being back in school.  We were supposed to start back last week from Christmas break and went for 1.5days but had delays & snow days (which technically were because it was cold as can be and no one goes to school in such --- temps).. Another closure yesterday but we finally went back today.  All these delays and closures are playing havoc on Dimples and his need to know what's going to happen next.   He did fine for Christmas break because we were able to count down how many days of no school.  Sudden changes in the schedule make for an unhappy kiddo.  Well that and the fact that he doesn't particularly care for school.  lol.  I keep hoping that one of these days he'll decide it's not half bad, but I am not holding my breath.. If you hate school in 1st grade, I don't see how it's going to get any better.. lol.

The Birthday Tree- seems appropriate for a Season of Birthdays...

December began the Season of Birthdays.  2 in Dec, 2 in Jan, 2 in March (4 if we count my BIL & niece)..  Life is busy and hectic this time of year.  And costly.  Life is definitely costly during the Season of Birthdays.  Along with birthdays come annual well checks.  Dimples & Southern Darlin' go to the dr every three months to get a med check (height, weight, blood pressure) so it's nice to see a little growth there.  What surprised me this year was that Southern Darlin' has finally left Spoiled Princess in the dust!  For years and years, Spoiled Princess was the bigger of the two despite being a year younger.  This year Southern Darlin' has finally taken the lead at 4'10.5" & 80lbs!  Woot ! Woot!  Spoiled Princess is 4'9" & 74lbs.  No wonder all the sweat pants/ yoga pants (Soft pants as Dimples calls them ) won't fit around her waist and just fall off.  Even more amazing is that Dimples grew 1 inch & gained 1 lb in the past 3 months!!  If you recall, this is the kid that has been tiny forever. He's not a whopping 39lbs & 3'9" tall.  Yeah, he's still a bit of a munchkin for a 6yo but hey, he's finally grown into 5T pants & size 4/5 shirts (not 4T!!!).  It's the little things, people.

I could write on and on about the IEP madness that is about to make me pull my hair out, or the thoughts of another surrogacy and random email I received, or Fishing Pole and his increasing anxiety issues which directly turn into behavioral issues..  But I think this is enough playing catch up for now.

Until another day...