Mother's Day 2013

I got lucky with Mother's Day this year - the kids' celebrations started 2 hours apart, and I was able to be at both!

I drove up to Halliburton first to have lunch with Miles.  He loved eating in a room other than his classroom, and loved holding my hand while we went to get our food.

 

When I left there, I drove to Gisèle's elementary school, where the entire kindergarten had prepared a day of pampering for all of the moms (or grandmas, aunts, etc.).  Each of the four classroom was set up with a theme: the first was the hair and makeup room (we brought our own supplies); the second was prepared for manicures and pedicures; the third contained all the supplies to make a beautiful bracelet; and the fourth had dimmed lights, scented lotion, and magazines so that we could relax while our kindergarteners rubbed out shoulders, hands, etc.

In preparation for our spa day, I had taken Gisèle to the store where I allowed her to pick out the perfect shade of eye shadow, blush, lip gloss, and nail polish to put on me.  She chose a white-silver-black shadow palette, and dark pink, sparkly blush, a bright pink, glittery lip gloss, and frog green nail polish.  Beautiful!

Gisèle did a fabulous job on my makeup, hair (she sprayed glitter spray in it), nails, and massage.  She took it all very seriously, and I loved every minute of it.

The picture she drew is of us picking apples.  So I guess one day we should go apple picking!

 

All About My Mom

My Mom is "50" years old.

She is "25" feet, "30" inches tall and weighs "90" pounds.

She is prettiest when she "is outside."

She likes to eat "cornbread."

She usually shops at "Target" for "food."

Her favorite TV show is "cooking shows."

She is afraid of "fire."

I like it when we "go to gymnastics" together.

My Mom's the best "chef" there ever was.

I "love" her!

"Love, Gisèle"

 

 

I love my mom because

"she is swet and you are a grat cook!"

({She is sweet and you are a great cook!})

One of the sweetest things about Mother's Day this year was that Gisèle and Miles tapped into their piggy banks to pool their quarters and buy me a Starbucks drink.  They each get a quarter every day if they've had good behavior and listening both at school and at home (and Miles has had no accidents).  They average 4-5 quarters a week, and contributed 9 quarters each for the drink.  So basically, my sweet children each spent an entire paycheck on me for Mother's Day!  They went into the store to buy it, and I wish I could have seen the barista's face when they ordered (with Jamie's help, of course) and then paid in quarters.

 I also received a beautiful bouquet of roses from Jamie as well as a gift certificate to Sur La Table, an awesome kitchen supply store.  I am blessed!

Gisèle's Haircut

Isn't she beautiful?

 

Hard Week

This has not been an easy week.

It started last Wednesday.  Tuesday, really, when Gisèle came home from school scratching her head.  I didn't think too much of it, because she was also pretty hot and sweaty at the time, having just come from the playground.  When she was still scratching the next morning, though, Jamie took a look and confirmed - it was lice.  LICE. 

(If your family has never had to deal with lice, I pray you escape it.  I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.  Not that I have an enemies I can think of.  But I wouldn't even wish it on people I don't like.  Like the most annoying Jeopardy contestant ever, Colby, or Nicholas Cage, who just makes me roll my eyes.)

On Thursday, Miles's preschool said they found 2 "bugs" in his hair.  (We had not found anything at all the night before.  The school knew, however, that Miles's sister had lice.)  Jamie took him home, but didn't find a single bug or egg anywhere on his head.  He treated him anyway, as a precaution, and planned to send him back to school on Friday.  Later Thursday afternoon, Jamie got a call from the school director, who informed him that Miles wouldn't be allowed back at school without a doctor's note.  He spent the next hour scrambling to get the doctor's office to fax a note to the school clearing Miles's to go back since he never had lice in the first place.    

Everyone's hair has been treated, and since Wednesday, we've had to wash and change the sheets and towels daily, vacuum everything daily, and do nightly, lengthy lice & nit checks.  Jamie and I are exhausted.

Friday, Miles's school sent a long letter to all the parents, informing them that "a child in one of the preschool classrooms has been diagnosed with head lice."  It advised that extra hand-washing and other precautions be taken, and reassured parents that the infected child would not be allowed back to school until he was "disease-free for 24 hours."

Monday morning, I had a glucose tolerance test and battery of bloodwork for my next PCOS check-up, which will be next week.  That left me completely drained the rest of the day.

Jamie left on a business trip Monday afternoon, so things have become a little bit more difficult in the last couple of days, simply because I'm on my own with the kids and the lice-containment duties.  On the upside, last night I didn't find any more lice on Gisèle (knock on wood!), and very few nits.  We'll do a follow-up shampoo treatment on Friday, after Jamie is home. 

The hardest part about having Jamie gone, besides simply missing him, is the lack of sleep.  With him away, I'm responsible for transporting both kids to and from school.  Gisèle's school is near the house, but Miles's is near Halliburton.  I never sleep well with Jamie away, and I have to wake up extra-early to get ready before getting the kids up, so the most I can hope for right now is about 5 hours of sleep.  I haven't been able to get that, though.  Monday night, Gisèle woke up in the middle of the night with a nightmare.  Tuesday night, Miles woke up because he "bonk-ted {his} head."  I've had 2 espresso drinks each of the first 2 days, and that's the only thing keeping me going.  At least the traffic wasn't bad this morning.  Yesterday there were 2 accidents, so I was in the car for 1 1/2 hours before I finally go to work.


Jamie gets home tomorrow afternoon.  I can hold out until then.  Right?