It seems Joseph was naughty this year and got put in time out.What's been going on? Well, we had a fabulous Christmas eve dinner, and we did our traditional late night present opening, etc but then on the 25th, Papi set off to give his family a Christmas surprise. Yep, he flew to Chile. He got a great chance to go for very cheap and so he took it. The rest of us spent the day at my parent's house. The exciting news is that nothing big happened while we were alone, not one basement flooding! Now that's what I call progress. A friend came down from Idaho with her kids and we spent the New Year's week together and went to our ward's party, so we all kept busy. I could have been miserable New Years since I got engaged on New Years (Oh, not this New Years, that was 1989, or else Papi would be miserable and I would be working on my plan to get a divorce from my second husband before I got charged with bigamy and then try to dupe him into child visitations on weekends, thus leaving me free to get lots of things done!) but I figured, why think about it and be miserable? I used my talent of being distracted to distract me from missing Papi too much. One great tactic was to take out my energy on the kitchen which desperately needed me to clean and organize it and sterilize it so as to get rid of the cupboard moth invasion. (Some stragglers are still alive, and it's making me nervous, plus, I've become a total moth assassin.) I was up till 3 am most nights. Seems I don't know when to stop when someone isn't there to tell me. I forget to eat too, and all my pants are loose now. My other great tactic during "solitude" (if you can call being alone with 5 kids solitude) is to rent movies Papi would never watch and eat all the food he hates but I love. Having too many people to take care of probably helped too. And the fact that I could talk to him over the phone almost every day helped too. But, by the end of 3 weeks we were all ready to have him back and I was ready to give my kids away to anyone who wanted them by the time I got them to church that last Sunday after one jumped out the window and climbed on top of the shed, everyone went every which way and fought like cats and dogs, put their clothes on backwards, and in general acted like maniacs. But then, Papi couldn't get a flight out. That was depressing. Then, he finally did. Next, he got sick. Meniere's and international travel do not mix that well. He's spent half the time he's been home too dizzy to do anything. Currently, we're trying to get him in to see a doctor. Not that it will help much, but what else can you do? We are trying to get people really done with their science fair projects and a civil war project before next week because we sort of forgot to finish those projects over the summer. I'm behind on lots of Relief Society stuff too, but I guess most of those problems aren't going away, so I can still get to them. Plus, if I go too many months without getting in visiting teaching reports, probably they will get the hint and call me a visiting teaching leader. Enigma has been super busy doing a photo shoot which also required some help getting a costume ready from me and her grandma. Now she's getting ready for her training in Vegas. Wow, see how fast you can update a month when you get old and your memory gets fuzzy? It's great! Except when you realize you made a Christmas newsletter but never sent it and not only is it a month and a half late being sent, but the registration on your car is expiring in 3 days and one of those days is Sunday. Then that reminds you your car's steering went out too, and you didn't even write about all that fun, but you decide not to and opt to do something more responsible like work so you can buy groceries with the money that will replace to your bank account the money you paid for the repairs. I'll try to find some time to get on more often and share more of the nonsense or common sense going on around here. Take care should I not make it back for another month!
