The Last Half of February

The last time I posted a "real" post, I was in a serious funk over my hair. I'm still not happy with it. I went back to Stylist X on Monday the 16th after a long day of professional development meetings. While telling me that the problem was that I was in a hurry and left with wet hair (which I didn't), he told me that I was apparently anal about my hair. WHAT?!? What stylist says that to a client...especially one whose hair he just butchered and he's having to give a free repair haircut to? Needless to say, I'm back in the market for a hair stylist. If you know someone who can cut curly hair in Rogers or Bentonville, PLEASE let me know! I now have an appointment over spring break to get my hair done in Hot Springs by the same person who used to cut my hair in junior high. She also did my hair for my prom and my wedding. I trust this woman, but I can't make a habit out of getting my hair done in Hot Springs. It's slightly inconvenient.

On Tuesday (2/17), Rudy and I had a date night. He had gotten me tickets to see Avenue Q for my birthday. (Yes...in October.) We scrambled around trying to figure out how to squeeze dinner into the date, but it just didn't work out. The timing of getting home, the babysitter arriving and getting to the show on time wasn't conducive to dinner. That didn't dampen our date, though. We enjoyed the show tremendously. While it wasn't exactly family fare, we laughed so hard our faces hurt. It is easily in my top 3 musicals - right up there with Wicked and Phantom. I've just never seen puppets do or say those kinds of things! Ha!

Friday (2/20) was another busy day for us. We came straight home from school and loaded the car. We met Leslie and Nick at Les' mom's house in Farmington so that they could leave their kids with her for the weekend. Then they got in the car with us (and Caleb) and headed to Jan's house in Ft. Smith. Caleb stayed with Jan while we went to Hot Springs for a mini-reunion with some of Rudy's fraternity brothers. We had a GREAT time with our friends - most who we hadn't seen since our wedding almost 10 years ago. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures to share. I'm sure other people's pictures will surface at some point, though I'm not completely sure I want them to. :)

All that fun and all that playing caught up to me on Monday, when Caleb's school called to say he was sick. He had a low-grade fever and his eyes were continually matting up. They called at 10:00 and I asked if he could stay until 11:30, so I could take a half day instead of a whole one. Thankfully, they were okay with that. I immediately called the doctor's office and got an afternoon appointment. When Caleb and I got there, we waited for over an hour - most of that time in the actual exam room. I felt like I was in a cage! I hate it when they do that to you. The nurse left and nobody came in for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the doctor came in and looked Caleb over. He said that he suspected that he had either a cold or allergies which were causing the eye goopiness. The doctor tried to write a prescription for D-Allergy and I told him that we already have 2 bottles of that and it doesn't work. So, he changed the prescription to Claritin. He also wrote a prescription for some antibiotic eye drops. I took both scripts down to the pharmacy in the clinic and waited for another ridiculous amount of time. Finally, Caleb's name was called and my bill for 2 prescriptions (for a cold or allergies) was $75!!!! The eye drops were $60 by themselves. Come to find out, we could've gotten an older prescription for a lot less. How was I supposed to know? Regardless, Caleb's eyes and nose have cleared up and life goes on. Rudy stayed home with him on Tuesday - just in case the eye junk was contagious as the doctor suggested.

Of course, since Caleb was sick, I had to get sick. I spent Tuesday through the weekend battling sinus congestion and headache, along with achiness. My school has had a flu outbreak so I was scared that I was getting that, but managed to keep it to just cold & sinus unpleasantries. Rudy was awesome the whole time. He took care of Caleb and me...even on the nights when I couldn't stay up past 7:30. I'm feeling better now!

This past weekend was wonderful, despite the remainders of head congestion. On Friday night, we went to dinner - just the 3 of us. On Saturday, we woke up to a big surprise: snow. Overnight, we had gotten a solid dusting of beautiful snow. As the day went on, it continued to snow and we ended up getting quite a bit of accumulation. Unlike the ice storm, this snow was beautiful. We had big flakes and the roads were only slick for a couple of hours overnight. It was a nice way to spend a relaxing weekend - just watching the snow fall. We did leave the house on Saturday for Aurick's 7th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's. Of course, if you ask Caleb who the party was for, he'll tell you Chuck E. He doesn't quite get the whole birthday party thing yet. He will...soon. We stayed home Saturday night.

Sunday was a fun day for Rudy and I. We were grateful to get to go to the Razorback basketball game. This game was a special event - a celebration of the 1994 National Champion basketball team. The Hogs won the championship when Rudy and I were seniors in high school. Due to lots of drama involving Coach Richardson, the team has not been recognized since they left the U of A. Finally - 15 years later - the team all came back together for the game on Sunday. There was a lot of fanfare and excitement in the building. We skipped the autograph sessions and the replay of the '94 game, but the halftime presentation was awesome. I had goosebumps and even got a little teary-eyed seeing Scotty Thurman, Corey Beck, Corliss Williamson and Coach Richardson come out on that floor and hearing the fans go crazy for them. My favorite part, though, was the spontaneous Hog Call that broke out. I just love it when that happens.

Confession time: Rudy and I broke our own Razorback rules yesterday. We left the game after halftime. (Which the Hogs won, by the way.) We decided that we needed to take advantage of having a babysitter and we went to get dinner. Even with the guilt of leaving early, that dinner was wonderful. We got to sit and enjoy and meal and each others' company for the first time in a while.

One last thing...

Caleb learned to ride his tricycle on Wednesday! Rudy took him outside to enjoy the warm day while I was sick. His little legs are finally long enough to reach his pedals and he learned to pedal and steer at the same time. It's supposed to be warm again later this week. I'll try to get some video/pictures of it.