My Author/Illustrator/Playwright/Comedienne (with pneumonia)

Author/Illustrator:

 The story of the time we saw her teacher at Chili's.

Playwright:

Yesterday she exclaimed, "A quick note for an antidote!" and pretended to faint onto my bed. She told me she was working on a play.

Comedienne:

On the way home from the doctor on Wednesday, we got stuck in traffic. KayTar pointed out a police vehicle and I said, "Yeah, someone probably had an accident." KayTar says, "I think someone peed their pants!" 

(with pneumonia):

At her doctor's appointment, she was diagnosed with pneumonia in her left lung. Same as around this time last year! When the doctor (who isn't our regular pediatrician) looked in her throat and said, "Not much back there!" KayTar replied, "Nope, just my uvula!" That got a chuckle from the doc. She is on her third day of antibiotics and steroids, her fever finally broke yesterday, and her lungs were sounding just a bit clearer last night. Still hearing crackles in her the middle of her left lung and the base of her right..hopefully it will clear soon!

Patient Note

 5 year old female presenting with 5 days of febrile illness per her mother's report. Patient also complains of cough, congestion, wheezing, and occasional loose stools. Mother is treating with acetaminophen and ibuprofen for the fever, Mucinex and Albuterol for the cough and wheezing, and Benadryl for the congestion, all as needed. Patient may have hallucinated during a fever spike two nights ago, as she adamantly insists that her brother was hiding underneath her table at 3am. Patient is in good spirits and thoroughly enjoying her sick days.

Life with the 'Tars: In Photos

2/9:

 

 

2/10: 

2/11:

 

2/12:

 

2/13:

Little of this and that...

We were supposed to get snow last week. It was supposed to snow from 11pm Thursday to 5pm Friday. Real snow! Fun, fluffy snow! Classes/school were canceled. Spoiler alert: It did not snow. The children cried. KayTar said the weathermen should not get paid for this...they should be VERY poor now, she said. I can't say I disagree, I'm sure there were a lot of crying children in Houston last week! I did appreciate the time off from school, though, because my viral pharyngitis took a turn for the bronchial and I really needed a day of rest by Friday. Thanks, adenovirus! I read all of The Scorch Trials that day. (I highly recommend The Maze Runner series, by the way.)

I'm finally replacing things from the burglary, which my mom says I shouldn't advertise, lest the burglars come back for more (hi, mom!), but we've got a security system now and I'm not going waste too much energy worrying about being burglarized again. Even if I said nothing, the pictures below would tell you that my camera was replaced at the very least. ;) I didn't get quite enough reimbursement money from insurance to replace everything, but I'm pleased with the compromises that I made and this week has been a bit like Christmas. It has been a good week for school, too. My Storytelling class was canceled on Tuesday, which means the people set to perform on Tuesday got shifted to Thursday and my performance was shifted to next Tuesday. Hallelujah! To make things even better, after spending all day today studying for a Precal exam tomorrow and planning to spend all evening doing the same, I got word that morning classes are canceled tomorrow because of the weather! The exam isn't until next Tuesday. Hooray! I don't have to be at school until 11:30 tomorrow. Yippee! Also, when I was greeting kids at the kids' school this morning, one of the third graders said, "Miss, you're pretty!" It is always nice to get an impromptu, seemingly honest compliment. All in all, it has been a surprisingly wonderful week thus far!

Adventures in Shadowing

I shadowed the pediatrician on Wednesday. It was a little more exciting than usual because the water was not working. No sinks. No working toilets. Nothing in the entire building! The hospital next door also did not have water, but they could run off the reserve tanks. Nobody talks about urine as often as they do when emptying your bladder is no longer an option! The nurses joked about cathing each other and a few little patients needed urine specimen cups because they simply could not wait. It was the first time I ever left campus for lunch while shadowing because venture out into the world in search of working restrooms. I had to ration my beverage at lunch so that I wouldn't have a full bladder later in the day, which worked like a charm. Nice to know I can hold it when I have to, I've heard enough horror stories about med school and residency to know it is a skill I need to have.

Clinic itself was interesting, as always. A few new things I saw: a 5 year old who broke 100 pounds (I thought the nurse had written the temperature in the wrong spot on the chart!), molluscum contagiousum, and fingernail shedding from HFMD. I also got to use the otoscope to visualize an infected ear (KayTar was so jealous when I told her I used the otoscope). We saw a few kids with pneumonia, one poor guy with both flu A and strep, and a lot of cute 9 month old babies. It was 9 month old day, evidently. I learned that sometimes, no matter how many different ways you say it, parents/patient just don't understand that something cannot be cured with a prescription...be it eczema or a virus. These are the patients/parents who leave very unsatisfied when they don't leave with a magical cure-all prescription and feel like they've wasted their time in clinic. I also learned that sometimes you can spend 10 minutes explaining something to patients/parents in great detail as they nod in what you perceive to be understanding, and as soon as your hand touches the door knob to leave the room, they ask you the EXACT SAME question you just spent 10 minutes answering. It makes you wonder about people.

We ran behind and didn't finish up until nearly 6pm. I got home between 6:30 and 6:45pm. Josh and BubTar had been working on his science fair project. The house was messy, the kids hadn't had dinner, and they go down for reading time at 7:30pm and bed at 8. My feet were quite tired (I'm not used to standing and walking all day yet!), so I took a 5 minute break when I walked in the door (well, if holding a chatty 5 year old in your lap counts as a break), but then we had to get down to business. We cleaned up a bit, made BubTar a quick dinner, and then KayTar begged me to play a game with her, so I did. We played anarchist Cootie (Cootie without rules) and she decided to make a KayTar-Cootie and an Uncle Z-Cootie and marry them. I told her, "KayTar, you can't marry your uncle!" And she said, "This is NO RULES Cootie, we are going NUTS!" I couldn't argue with that logic, so I officiated the Cootie marriage. In the blink of an eye, it was reading time. Once the kids were in bed, I took my shower, ate a pudding cup for dinner, and fell into bed. I think I watched a little TV, too, before zonking out around 10pm...which is early for me. This was the first mid-weeknight I have shadowed and it was quite a different experience at home. On a Friday night, things are much less structured around here so it doesn't make much of an impact, but during the week it does...it felt more accurate. Makes me wonder what evenings are like for most doctors with young kids! By the time I'm an actual doctor, my kids will be considerably older...but I'm sure we will have plenty of wild evenings during training!

It seems as though I brought home a little souvenir from clinic, as my throat has been inflamed for a day or two now and sleeping last night was next to impossible between little apneic episodes and the general discomfort in my throat. It isn't painful, it just feels swollen. I feel fine otherwise, but my throat sure is irritating me. I really enjoy being in clinic, though, so a little viral pharyngitis is a small price to pay, right?

So, I was right after all.

Last week I received a call from the genetics/metabolic clinic. The nurse told me that KayTar's recent test for VLCAD was negative and they were dismissing her from clinic. I was irate. I don't care that her test was negative, I mean, what is one more negative diagnostic test on top of the giant teetering stack of negative diagnostic test she already has in her file? I cared that she was being dismissed altogether. "I don't know." is an acceptable thing for a physician to say, but "I quit." is not acceptable, at least as far as I'm concerned. I understand not having any new leads or any idea what the next step might be, but if a kid has a metabolic issue, then metabolic clinic should continue to follow her case at the very least. Follow up once a year, maybe. However, I didn't say any of this, I just said, "Thanks. Goodbye." and choked back a few hot, angry tears.

Yesterday we had a follow up with endocrine which I feared would be a repeat of that last interaction with metabolic clinic. I was pleasantly surprised; the doctor and I actually spoke to one another, she reviewed her chart, labs results, and got updates about how things have gone for the past few months at home. At the end of all that, it turns out, I was RIGHT months ago, when I said it was ketotic hypoglycemia. It is a diagnosis of exclusion and since we've excluded EVERYTHING imaginable, we are officially calling it idiopathic ketotic hypoglycemia. I wish I could have been right without all these miserable tests, especially the inpatient fast, but I know they had to rule all those other conditions out. The diagnosis itself is just a catch-all and idiopathic is fancy medicalese for "who knows why!", but sometimes that is the best modern medical science can offer. It is better than nothing and being right is somewhat satisfying. Wonder if I can put this on my med school applications? ;) Basically, we will continue to do what we are doing; glucose checks, adding cornstarch to her feeds, frequent feeds, monitor her activity levels, test for ketones, overnight feeds when sick, go to the ER when we can't fix things at home, and follow up with endocrinology in 6 months. Hopefully, she will outgrow it at some point!

Even more books...

Graceling: If I was judging a book by its cover, this would be my favorite. I thought the cover art was really beautiful. The story itself was enjoyable, too. It is a fantasy novel, the main character is named Katsa and she is a Graceling, a person with two different colored eyes which marks them as having a Grace (which is a talent or gift for a certain skill or ability). It could be cooking or mind control or as it seems in Katsa's case, fighting. In this world, Gracelings belong to the King, who uses their skill however he sees fit. I don't want to give too much away, but it was a good read. It had a bit of mystery, battling, and a love story. It wasn't my favorite book ever, but I liked it enough to read the companion book as well.

Catching Fire and Mockingjay: I loved these. I read through one a day. I loved both Katniss and Peeta and I hated the world they were stuck in. Catching Fire took me by surprise many times, though in retrospect I guess I should have seen some of those things coming. The world in which these stories take place is not light or beautiful or smooth, but there is still such goodness in it, even in unexpected places. It seems each book gets darker, but there is always light to be found. As for Mockingjay, there were parts I didn't like, parts that made me exceedingly sad, but in the end, I was pleased with the outcome. It is tough to say much about these without giving things away, but READ THEM, if you haven't.

Fire: This is the companion book to Graceling. It takes place before Graceling in the same world, there is only one character in both novels and he is not the main character in either. Fire takes place in an adjacent kingdom, where Gracelings do not exist, but monsters do. Monsters are creatures that are equivalent to the animals (and even people) in our world, but they have vibrantly colored hair/feathers/fur and they also can influence the minds of creatures and people around them. Fire is the protagonist and she is a monster, the last human monster, in fact. The novel is largely the story of her self-discovery and how she learns to love herself and find her place in the world. There is also mystery, battling, and a love story like Graceling. I've read reviews that complain about the fact that menstruation is mentioned several times in the book, but it wasn't bothersome to me. It fit into the story because monsters crave the blood of other monsters, so Fire attracted attacks from other monsters during those times. It actually made me wonder why it wasn't addressed in the Twilight books...I mean, if Jasper freaked out over a paper cut on Bella's birthday, how did he ever survive high school with all those menstruating teenage girls in class with him? I digress. I liked Fire and I'll read the next companion book, Bitterblue, when it comes out.

All told, I read 10 books in my 2 weeks of child-free break. I think it was a lovely way to relax! I'm reading The Book Thief currently, but I imagine school will slow me down somewhat. ;)

First Day.

Spring term started today. I started my day with PreCal at 8:30am...the professor was late and we have our first homework problems already. Math takes pity on no (wo)man. The professor seems decent. Our grade will come from 3 exams, homework and quizzes, and the final. On the upside, the professor moved our start time back by 15 minutes and I remembered a good bit of the review work we covered today. Then I had an hour and 15 minutes of break, which I spent reading and enjoying a coffee from Starbucks.

Break time was followed by Government I, during which my stomach began to make such noises that I felt certain I had accidentally swallowed a baby whale along with my coffee. Thankfully, the professor was having issues with the sound system and the whole room was full of a mid-level buzz from the microphone feedback, so I think my digestive whale song was mostly covered. Again, the professor seems decent at first blush and I was pleased to discover our grade comes solely from textbook-based multiple choice exams, which he gives review for. We got out a bit early, so I went downstairs for a bit and discovered they were giving out free ice cream! Yum! I just missed out on the free burritos from FreeBirds, though. I read for a little while after finishing my scoop of ice cream.

My final class of the day was Storytelling, which was both interesting and terrifying. He kept referring to it as a performance-based class...and I hate to perform! I had to fight the urge to flee the class and drop it immediately. The bottom line is, I have to get my communications credit and the experience of the Storytelling course is going to be much better than a straight-up Speech course, I think. In any case, I am not looking forward to getting up in front of the class without notes or books 4 times this semester; 2 personal narratives, 1 children's bedtime story, 1 young adult/adult folktale. Our grade will come from those 4 assignments, plus 2 exams, one of which is a take home exam. After that class was done, I rushed to this side of town to pick up the kids and made it right on time. It was quite a full day and I didn't get a chance to have lunch until we were home and the kids were doing their homework. 1 day down, 31 to go!

Books, books, books!

When the kids went back to school last week, I started reading. Since then, I've read Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn (yes, I finally caved and jumped on that bandwagon), The Host, and The Hunger Games. Today I'm expecting to get Graceling in the mail and tomorrow Catching Fire and Mockingjay are set to arrive. I can't remember the last time I've burned through novels this way, in fact, I can't even keep that "What I'm Reading" button on my sidebar up to date, but I can't seem to get enough! I'm sure it will come to a screeching halt when my term starts next week, though. Here's some thoughts on what I've read so far...

The Twilight Saga: Vampires, werewolves, unrequited teenage love...I was skeptical at first. Although I love Harry Potter, I started reading them BEFORE it turned into some sort of worldwide phenomenon and the Twilight hype made me resist reading these for a long time. However, I needed a good junk food novel and so I took the plunge. They were excellent reads. People say Stephanie Meyer isn't a technically great writer, but she is masterful with character development and if I can click with a character I'm pulled into a book, no matter the story. I read these in such quick succession, I'm a little unsure about when one book ended and the next began so I can't really review each individual novel (I think Eclipse must have been my favorite as I read it start to finish in under 12 hours), but even as one big storyline I enjoyed it very much. And, for the record, I was always on Team Edward and couldn't really understand how Team Jacob ever came to be. ;)

The Host: This one is also by Stephanie Meyer, but meant for adults rather than a young adult audience. I was unsure about it at first, it is a slow starter and the subject (alien takeover) is not really my thing. I pressed on through the initial slow chapters and once I hit chapter 9 or 10, I was really pulled in and it just got better and better. Again, it was the characters that kept me reading. At times, I worried this one wouldn't resolve in a way I could be happy with, but it ended perfectly. I've read that she plans to make this a trilogy and I would love that!

The Hunger Games: If I was a little skeptical about Twilight, I was EXTREMELY skeptical about this one. Everyone was raving about it, so I decided to give it a chance, but the plot was not appealing to me at all...kids fighting to the death as televised entertainment?? It seemed too dark, dreary, and violent. Somehow, though, the book rose above all that to deliver a really beautiful story. There were battles and death, sadness and fear, but the author found a way to make even the deaths (at least the ones you cared about) well done and meaningful. Again, the connection I felt to the characters overcame any dislike I had of the setting or plot, and I can't wait until Catching Fire arrives on my doorstep tomorrow!

So, that's where I've been lately...on the sofa with my nose in a book. ;) I'll be back in a few days to review my latest reads!

The Big 10 of 2010

* KayTar made it to the one year mark of being episode-free.

* KayTar had not one, but TWO urgent g-button replacement surgeries.

* We ruled out adrenal insufficiency, growth hormone deficiency, and GSD 0...as well as a nut allergy!

* BubTar learned to ride a bike!

* Josh and I transferred to university.

* KayTar started MAINSTREAM Kindergarten!

* KayTar had an inpatient fast, which was horrific. Blech. We learned that she doesn't have a proper cortisol response when her glucose is low and that she has a large number of very long chain fatty acids in her blood when she is hypoglycemic which means her body isn't utilizing them properly.

* My mom discovered my blog. (Hey there, Mom!)

* Our home was burglarized. Boo.

* I passed organic chemistry, miraculously.

It was tough to choose, but I think I hit most of the major events of the year...as usual, they are mostly KayTar-related. ;)

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