Oh, how I miss the days when weekends meant sleeping late, reading the newspaper in bed in the afternoon, relaxation. This is one heck of a weekend. Today, of course, was Halloween. Which meant a party at Rowan's school - but it was also the day the fundraiser stuff we'd sold last month was delivered. I'd volunteered to help get the packages out to the classes, so I spent the morning at the school doing that. Gary went in to help out with lunch and to watch the parade at Rowan's class (he wouldn't take the camera, so I'll have to believe him that it was cute. Grr.). After school we tried to get Rowan to rest, but not surprisingly, she was bouncing off the walls (at least, off the bed). Then there was gymnastics (where they got to wear costumes for the beginning warm ups - what in the world are people thinking to send a kid in full face make-up for gymnastics?? I'm sure that was lovely for the mats! Then out of the costume. Then to grandmas and into the costume. Then out of grandmas and out of the costume. Then back home and in the costume to do trick-or-treating. We only hit about 6 houses, because Rowan's sick and Gary's cold and I'm lazy. :) She's sleeping now, the cough medicine seems tobe working, at least. And she got many compliments on her turtle costume. It amazes me how impressed people are by simple homemade cosumes, you know? I didn't see a single kid out without some sort of mask or costume bought somewhere. Strange. Wait, no, one may have been sewn at home, I'm not positive. Anyhow. Tomorrow Rowan has school again (whether she goes or not is still up in the air. She's been coughing a lot and I have to call the doctor in the A.M., depending when they'll see her and how she feels in the morning, she may or may not go. She missed Monday for being sick, why not miss tomorrow, too. Friday night we have an appointment to have a family portrait taken for our church directory (first time they've ever done a photo directory, can't wait to see how it comes out!). It couldn't be worse timing, but oh well. We get a free 8x10" photo and copy of the directory (obviously the ppl doing this hope we'll buy more, and they'll take several shots, but keep reading to see my secret weapon against buying any). I know what I'm wearing (and I think it's clean!), and I have a good idea I know what Gary will wear (which likely is not clean), but I haven't a clue what to dress Rowan in. I was hoping to get Gary a tie that would match the dress I'm wearing, but that never happened. Ah, well, getting him to wear a suit jacket and white shirt will probably be enough of a challenge! Rowan has lots of cute clothes, but I'm going to be wearing a burgandy jumper and black mock turtleneck, and Gary will be in black/white, I just don't know what Rowan has that will coordinate nicely enough with those. Oh well, we'll figure it out. Saturday morning is dance class, and Saturday evening is Rowan's birthday party. Sometime Friday night/Saturday afternoon, we have to do 8 gajillion things, like buying the party snacks, buying balloons (trying to figure out whether to rent a helium tank and buy the balloons or buy 3 dozen balloons already blown up. And better figure it out soon since I have to order the balloons in advance if doing it that way), wrapping Rowan's first gift from us (most we'll give her on her actual birthday - Wednesday - but we're giving her a fancy leotard for the party. Shhhh, don't tell her!), ordering pizza so Gary can just go pick it up at the appointed time. Sunday there's church, and we're going for a family portrait to be taken at Wal*Mart (yeah, the company sucks, but a $7 portrait package that will cover everything for our holiday cards is too good to pass up. Alas, we missed the $3 package a few weeks ago, but I'll manage to dig up $7). Our last real family portrait was taken 4 years ago, so it's about time! Of course, the last time we went to a real studio and had lovely prints made and all, but at over $100 for one 8x10" photo and fewer than 10 wallets, I just can't see doing it again in the near future! But this is also my insurance against being pressured into spending more on Friday when Olan Mills does the photos for the church directory! We have to figure out what to wear for that, too. When I first started planning this whole family picture, it was spring. We have coordinating outfits, but they're definitely warm weather oriented. Guess we'll just skip the wintery backgrounds! And after that? We, or at least I, collapse!

I've been unable to post lately, it seems Blogger was hacked which (I assume) is why I keep getting errors when I try to update. Oh well, I've nothing worthy of saying anyhow, short of time marches along, trampling me under foot.

"I'm not very good at being alive. Sometimes I despair of ever getting it right. Maybe when I'm old, perhaps when I'm thirty...." From The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee Random Acts of Journaling strikes again! Recently, I've been thinking a lot about turning 30. I am currently 28, will be 29 in January, and - presumably - will turn 30 in January of 2004. When I write it out like that it sounds much further away than "in 15 months." And I can't wait. I remember quite clearly the time I thought 30 seemed ancient (I recall figuring out I would be 26 in the year 2000, and that seeming eternities away, as well). And while I certainly don't feel that I'll be over THE hill come 30, I do think it's a big peak to cross. I'm hoping at that point, in my head, at least, I will be a real grown-up. There are days I feel such a fraud in my life. I'm not supposed to be the one chaperoning field trips, I 'm supposed to be hiding in the back of the bus with friends talking about who the cute boys on the bus are! My tenth high school reunion is this weekend (I will not be attending, though I keep running into former classmates all over town lately, it's getting bizarre!), and it feels like a few days ago I left vowing never to return (still haven't, still twitch when I drive by). I talk to these people I graduated with who are now teachers, lawyers, artists... and what am I? I still don't own a single pair of high heels shoes (higher than half in inch, that is), and think I have one pair of pantyhose in a drawer somewhere. I don't drive. I drink Coke for breakfast. And *I* am supposed to be the grown-up?? Thirty is what I'm looking to as my big turning point. I'm sure I'll wake up the morning after my birthday and feel entirely the same, but at the same time, I hope I don't. I hope somehow, something I do makes me feel a lot lesss like I'm playing pretend with my life. At the least, I plan to dig out and see how much I've accomplished from my list of 100 things I want to do in my life. Hopefully I can cross a few off. I doubt I'll suddenly be better at life on the whole, but I'm hoping that I'll feel I fit better into my reality.

Can I just say this isn't my week? Tuesday and Wednesday, I had a sleep study at the hospital, to find out if I have sleep apnea (stop breathing in the middle of the night, fun, eh?) and if I would fall asleep when left to nap during the day. 1 and a half days of my life spent in the hospital sleeping with wires all over the place. The best part? I'm allergic to the (hypo-allergetic) tape they use to stick the stuff on. So now I look all red and swollen and bruised where things were. I still have clumps of glue in my hair from the glue they used for the electrodes that comes off looking like big ugly dandruff flakes. *sigh* Today, I have an appointment for a teeth cleaning with the dentist (rather, the hygenist), and I have a huge throbbing canker sore on my lower lip that I know will hurt like a bitch come time to move it out of the way. I forgot Rowan had a dentist appointment yesterday at 7:30am, so she missed that. I mistook which week it was and sent her with Gary for her follow-up hearing test Wed. afternoon (while I was still locked in the hospital). Oops, that's NEXT Wednesday. He wasn'thappy (esp. since the person who checked him in didn't mention she wasn't on the schedule, so he sat in the ped. department for an hour before someone asked why he was waiting and showed him he wasn't supposed to be there. I think they even charged him for the visit. Hello, moron at the desk, when the computer says "this person shouldn't be here" did you not READ that? Or were you too busy speaking some other language on the phone again to really notice the person in front of you?.). I'm hoping the week after nextwill be a medical-professional-free week, because I've had about all I can take.

How in the world is it October already? Guess I better get working on Rowan's turtle costume - that's what she's decided to be this year for Halloween. I have no idea why, it was pretty random, she's just been fond of turtles recently. We went to Petco (for darn expensive cat food, since Gabriel had a little urinary blockage last week - $800 later, he's well, and we're off buying the high-price cat food [even though the tests showed nothing that would indicate the food we WERE feeding was causing probems, we figure we might as well be careful]), where they had a tank of turtles for sale. She thought that was kind of neat (of course, she also liked how they have big tubs of cat litter poured out for people to... who knows! Why in the heck do they want cat litter out? Do people do like, texture tests before buying?? Is this for the people who bring their pets with them??? Is it for if the ferrets escape???? In *any* event, I wasn't too appetized by Rowan sticking her hands in cat litter, ya know?) Anyhow. Life goes on. Quickly.