Post-Christmas Wrap-Up.

Christmas was wonderful. We exchanged gifts at my parents' house with my sisters' kids on Christmas Eve-Eve and the kids spent the night there that night. Josh did clean up while I braved the crowds to finish my shopping. On Christmas Eve, the Elves dropped off their standard Christmas pjs and a movie off on the doorstep. The evening we had dinner with Josh's family and then my parents spent the night as usual. BubTar woke at 3:30am on Christmas and sat watching Rudolph on the sofa with my mom until 5am when we let him wake KayTar up. Then it was present-palooza at our house, followed by present-palooza at Josh's parents' house. Then we were DONE. The rest of the day was spent playing with new things and vegging out. KayTar and Josh took a nap at some point, but BubTar never did! Our friends came over that evening for a gift exchange, which KayTar slept through (though we tried to wake her) and when she woke up to find she had slept through their whole visit, she was devastated. We let her open her gift, but she was still sad so we let her call them to say thanks, but she dissolved into those pathetic sobs while on the phone which only served to make both her and our friends quite sad. Oops. We decided to distract her with dinner at iHOP (one of the only places open on Christmas Day) and all was well. I'd list what everyone got, but you know...those pesky burglars have my electronic equipment, which has the address to this blog, so I'm not going to advertise our new things. I will say that our new alarm system is now set-up. YAY!

Break is quite nice, I've been on a rigorous schedule of sleeping in, GuitarHero-ing, Tony Hawk Ride-ing, Words With Friends-ing, reading, laundry, television and movie watching, and attempting to get this house back into some sort of post-Christmas order. We're also playing catch-up on all the things we've been putting off...last week BubTar saw the dentist (no cavities!), today KayTar sees the dentist, and tomorrow she gets her flu shot. Such fun holiday activities. I think my course schedule is set for next semester, though I desperately want to trash it so I can shoehorn Human Physiology into it (which just opened up again), but no matter how many different ways I try to work it in, I either fall short on hours or end up with way too many. I think it will just have to wait for another term. Cancer Bio will have to be enough for me, I suppose.

Christmas made me miss my camera desperately, but here are a few passable point and shoot photos...

Merry Christmas from the 'Tars!

The Outtakes:

Where's my t-shirt?

A friend called me from campus yesterday, she looked up my grade for me and I got my C! Never have I been so pleased with a C.

A couple of days ago, I was signing BubTar's progress report and we had the following exchange:

BubTar: I didn't make any grades below a 93!
Me: I wish I could say the same!
BubTar: What do you mean? What are your grades?
Me: Right now I have 3 A's, 1 C and I'm hoping for another C.
BubTar (taken aback with a hint of disdain in his voice): But Mom...a C is just average!

That's my little overachiever. ;) I explained to him that since the majority of my class had F's, a C wasn't too shabby. I think I'm more than fine with being merely average in organic chemistry...so long as I don't have to ever take the first part of it again!

I survived!

I don't know if I passed, but I lived through the semester. I sort of look like this now, though.

Image from The Secret Life of the American Chem Major
I know that I made A's in US History, Music, and Biopsych...and I know I made a C in organic lab, which was actually a miracle. My lab professor was the biggest douche-canoe known to man. Lab has been an absolute nightmare all semester, even though I always successfully completed the experiments. The professor was outrageous; he quizzed us over material that is never covered in class, he made it impossible to get higher than a B on a labs that were executed largely without error, he docked us a full letter grade once for not stapling our papers although there is no stapler in lab...all while reminding all of us that he is a "cool guy" and telling us daily how "lucky we are to have [him] for a professor". I've never been in a course where the professor is so universally disliked by the students. The class average on the final was a 36. It was rough. Oh well, let's call it preparation for all of the horrific residents and attendings I'll have the pleasure of working under during my training. 

As far as lecture goes, I studied my heart out. I worked through 228 pages of material between yesterday afternoon and my test this morning. If it goes badly, I will not be able to say, "Oh, I should have done more." Whatever the outcome, I know I put the work in and tried my best.

Monday night, we had a bit of a lively evening around here. I was studying (organic, what else) when I heard a very familiar sound over the monitor. Mt. Saint KayTar was about to blow. I ran to the kitchen for a bowl and dashed up to her room, seconds too late. She was already covered in vomit, but I caught what I could. When I looked in the bowl, I was shocked to see a couple of teaspoons worth of bright red blood mixed into her bedtime feed. Yikes! Josh and I hypothesized that it was a nosebleed draining posteriorly and collecting in her tummy, but I emailed the pediatrician to be on the safe side. She said we could watch her for the time being, but if it continued we need to go to the EC. But guess what? I had a final the next morning! Oh noooo. So I emailed my professor to let her know about the situation and possibility of being stuck in the EC some test time, just in case. My professor said I could take the exam at another time if necessary, but thankfully, it all worked out in the end. No more bloody vomit! Just when I think that kid is out of surprises, she pulls a new one out.

I'm officially on break now. Such sweet relief, though I fully expect to be B-O-R-E-D in 3-5 days. Oh well, such is life.

Burgled on a Tuesday.

I don't know if that is the correct term for it, but it is more fun to say that "burglarized". So yeah, that happened yesterday.

I'm sort of out of school right now, as this week and next are finals weeks and I only have three interspersed over 10 days of school. Since I usually volunteer at the kids' school before class on Tuesday, I went in with them and stayed longer than usual just because I could. It was a nice morning of sorting books and helping the counselor and librarian make hot cocoa and pass out gingerbread cookies to the classes that would come through. Just as I was about to leave, KayTar spotted me and asked me to have lunch with her. Actually, she sort of begged and threw in a "But I've been waiting ALL OF KINDERGARTEN for you to have lunch with me!" Who can say no to that? So I stayed, though my tummy was grumbling since I had skipped breakfast, and then when BubTar spotted me in the cafeteria, I stayed for his lunch, too. After all the lunching was over, I left the school and swung by Dairy Queen for a quick lunch to bring home and eat before it was time to turn around and go pick the kids up.

As I pulled up to the house, I reflexively reached up to my garage door opener and hit the button and started to pull into the driveway...then I saw it. The front door was wide open. I guess I'm an optimist, because I sort of thought Josh might have accidentally left it unlocked and the wind had sucked it open or something. However, I'm not an idiot, so I stopped short and called Josh before pulling into the drive. He said, "I know I locked it. Leave and call the cops." My stomach sank a little. I asked him to call the cops and meet me at home, because the last time I called the cops it was because I thought I heard a gun shot and it turned out to be a squirrel getting fried by a transformer on the power line. I didn't really want to make another unnecessary call, which I was really hoping this would be. I parked at the end of the block, so I could watch the front door in case anyone came out. They didn't. A few minutes later I saw a police officer enter the house, so I pulled up in front of it. He said, "Is this your house, ma'am? Was this bag here when you left this morning?" He pointed to a duffel bag on the floor in the entryway. The bag Josh brings to the shooting range. It definitely had not been there when we left. Then I knew.

Josh pulled up moments later and we both sat in my van while we waiting for the officers to clear the house. I hoped our dog was alive. I was so worried that whoever had done this had shot her. I hoped the presents and tree were still there, I didn't want the kids to learn there are real Grinches in the world. A few seconds or eternities later, the officers called up inside. Penny was fine. The presents were under the tree. The house was in disarray. Josh's guns were gone (he's a hunter and he likes to go to the range for fun, he had more than a few, some had been handed down to him, even). My camera, my beloved camera, was gone. My favorite lens, gone. Our living room TV was gone. We went into the bedroom, it had been ransacked. Our TV was gone. My laptop and iPod touch, gone. Every time we noted something else that was missing, my stomach dropped lower. All of my favorite non-living things, gone in a blink. The laundry basket was gone, too, I suppose they needed it to carry things out.

Our house had been locked up tight, but it didn't matter. They must have known our schedule, because it seems like they took their time getting inside. First, they borrowed a hammer from our tool shed and pried off the sheet metal scratch guard from the backdoor, hoping for a hole there, I guess. Then they tried to use the same hammer, OUR hammer, to pry open a back window, bending the frame in the process, but getting nowhere. Finally, they used OUR hammer to shatter the window, reach in, and unlatch it. Then they climbed through, gathered up our things, and walked out the front door in the middle of the day. Just.like.that.

We told the kids last night. BubTar said, "Did you check my books? Are they all still here?!" KayTar said, "Are my stuffed animals okay?" After we assured them their prized possessions were safe, BubTar suggested we dust for prints in the kitchen and KayTar went upstairs to check for tracks in her bedroom. BubTar watched A Series of Unfortunate Events on DVD last night, after it was over he said that at the end it says that when unfortunate things happen there is always more good than bad and he said, "Like tonight, even though the burglars came, I felt a lot closer as a family after that talk." This morning, KayTar was walking around taking inventory of what they didn't take. Baby powder, check! Deodorant, check! Blankey, check! We've got good kids.

I'm glad we weren't here. I'm glad I stayed for lunch with the kids and didn't come home and surprise them. I'm glad this didn't happen on Monday when I was home studying and showering all by my lonesome during that time slot. I'm glad they didn't take any necessities or the kids' things or the presents (they actually set them aside nicely, so they didn't get trampled). I'm glad they didn't break anything except the window. I'm glad they didn't make more of a mess than they had to. I'm glad they left the Wii and the desktop computers (especially the one with my photos on it) and that Penny is fine. They just took our toys. Mean kids will do that, I guess. Last night we had to *gasp* watch TV in the living room before bed on a borrowed TV...and I had to *gasp* walk into the study to check my email. Such hardships! ;) How will we survive? We're just lucky to have those nice things in the first place.

I'm irritated about small things. They broke my deodorant. My iPod was my alarm and my cell phone was a poor and annoying replacement (though, as I complained about that this morning, Josh pointed out that my alarm had probably woken them at 5:15 this morning and I hope they had trouble finding it to turn it off!). I couldn't find my chapstick last night because they had knocked it down in their search for expensive things. Stupid things that remind me bad guys were in our house. I have a final tomorrow, but didn't feel safe enough to stay here today so I went to the library to study. I like to study in my pjs while listening to TV, not while being politely silent in the library. I was a little worried that they might come back for things today, knowing what was left and that the window is an easy access point, since they broke it and all. Today has been fine, though, and we're home now just like normal. You know, life goes on...but yeah, we're definitely getting a security system after this!

School Pictures 2010