Thanksgiving and then some

I missed posting last week because I was in Atlanta, at NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English), a conference that's long been on my bucket list because it involves both college English professors *and* writers. This year, I attended as a writer and was on a panel for YA writers and got to stay in a lovely hotel (the Glenn) arranged by my publisher.

Here's the view from my window:

I was excited for Atlanta because this had been my backyard the morning I left, but Atlanta turned out to be surprisingly cold (though the parts I saw were pretty).

 I wasn't there for very long, but I got to meet a lot of authors in real life that I've been friends with online, and a few who have no idea who I exist, but whose work I admire (like Maggie Stiefvater, below).

 Friends from an online writing community (Pitch Wars) that I've been part of for two years.

I came home with a suitcase packed full of new books to a household full of sick children (A & E had been puking while I was gone). Poor Dan. By Monday, both kids were complaining of sore throats, so I took them in to the doctors. Evelyn was diagnosed with strep, but Andrew's test came back negative. On Tuesday, however, when his throat was hurting worse (and we were heading out of town the next morning), we went back and had him retested and his came up positive.

That night, it was Oliver's turn. He started sounding croupy around 10 pm--as bad as I've ever heard him. Breathing treatments and a walk in the cold air didn't seem to help, so I took him to the ER where we spent the next 2.5 hours. The steroids seemed to make a big difference in his breathing, but he did NOT want to sleep while we were there and was not surprisingly cranky the next day.

Wednesday, we went up to my parent's house and got caught in a huge detour on I-15, thanks to an over-turned semi that leaked battery acid and closed down the freeway in both directions. An extra 90 minutes later, we made it. We went shopping for Thanksgiving and hung out.

Thursday, of course, we had our family dinner with both of my brothers and their families (my sister was there in spirit). It went really well, I think--my favorite thing is watching my kids have fun with their cousins.

Unfortunately, Oliver took a turn for the worse that night, his fever spiking and his breathing difficulties coming back (though not so croupy this time). That meant that he missed Leo's baptism on Friday, though Dan took the two older kids, who had a good time at the party afterward (Andrew ate nearly his weight in desserts).

We decided to do Evelyn's hair fancy for the event.

Yesterday, we had dinner with Bubby, Poppy, Sarah and her family, and Matt and his family (though Oliver ate about two bites and then wanted to sit in the car, so I missed most of it). Today, we had dinner with Matt's family and Bubby and Poppy.

Oliver is finally on the mend--unfortunately, I can feel something coming on myself. (Hoping I'm wrong--this is not a good week to be sick! Only 1.5 weeks to go in the semester).

Grateful this time of year for family, and for modern medicine, and for all the material blessings we have. Looking forward to getting the tree up this week and celebrating one of my favorite times of the year.

November

I'm struggling a little with what to say this week! I'm not sure what it means when a writer runs out of words, but nothing good, surely.

We had our primary program today, which means we practiced yesterday and last Sunday and while I was not the main person in charge (that honor goes to our wonderful music people and my counselor, who put the program together), it did mean lots of time wrestling with certain small people (okay, with Oliver). Oliver may have unintentionally stolen the show today by turning off some of the lights in the chapel when he was supposed to be singing. (Whose bright idea was it to put all the lights below the counter beside the podium where any 4 year old can reach it?) He spent more time climbing on his seat or trying to escape me and climb on the counter by the podium than actually singing. Our music leader's husband told me later that my son was a riot to watch--he looked so gleeful. Aside from Oliver, the program went really well. (And I guess if someone's kid had to act out, it might as well be mine.)

Otherwise, the last couple weeks have been busy: school, work, extra curriculars (piano/tae kwon do).

They've also been pretty draining. A week and a half ago, one of my dear friends buried her husband (she's 38, with 6 kids). She's in my writing group, and the other four of us went to the viewing, funeral, and then graveside service together. She's become almost like a sister and my  heart aches for her and her family. That was a hard, emotional day.

It was followed by some writing-related drama late last week and over the weekend (not anything I want to go into here, but you can ask me about it in person if you want) that took up more time and energy, and then of course this week was the election. I still feel a little out of it. (And I realize this post has suddenly become about me, and I'm sorry for that, but as I write I'm realizing why I don't remember much from the past couple weeks--it's been an emotional fog in a lot of ways).

We did have a fun Halloween though--one of Evelyn's friends came trick-or-treating with us, and Andrew got to go with one of his friends and felt very grown up.

Evelyn as a skull archer, Oliver as a pokemon trainer, and Andrew as a Grim Reaper (but I didn't get his picture until after he'd returned from trick-or-treating, and all the makeup around his mouth wiped off.)

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving break and getting to see a bunch of family. Wishing all our readers a good week as well!