Underscheduled

That's right. Last weekend we had nothing but one Christmas party planned. What happened here? I don't know but all I know is by Sunday, Anna was asking "why are we still in our PJ's" at 10am, and "where are we going today?" As if we never sit still.

OK we don't.

On Saturday, there was enough time for me to get a 10 mile run in, which says a lot since my pace is sloooowwww anyway. Hey, the Disney Half Marathon is Jan 9. I've been running with my morning group for the most part, and when I miss a morning with them, I make it up at the end of my work day, before I pick up Anna. The weather here has been perfect for running. Wouldn't it be great if we had that kind of weather at Disney?! Beats the 30 degree sleet we had at last year's Half!

On Sunday, I remember looking at my watch AND IT WAS ONLY 12:30! Not like I'm complaining. Downtime is really good. But really I could have at the least planned to organize my desk or something.

By 2:00pm, I had to find something to do of value out of the house. I had one thing I could think of to do and that required a trip to the mall. This being the weekend before Christmas, and really we were almost actually BORED, Anna and I got dressed and headed into the fray: THE CHRISTMAS MALL.

That's right, you heard me: my least favorite place in the whole world on a regular basis, and to venture out the weekend before Christmas is insanity. This is how bored we were.

"The mall will have lots of people. It will be crowded. Keep hold of my hand, don't touch anything, and stay close."

She did, and if I could ever get her to let go of my hand, she wanted it back as soon as possible. She asked why we were parking so far away. "Tis the season."

She's a people watcher. We did the errands I wanted to do pretty quickly, then she wanted Subway, (this child is addicted and should do a commercial) and so we watched people as she ate.

She's such a good kid out in public, especially if you set the rules. We're lucky that way I guess. We never have to worry about her running off somewhere, or losing sight of us, or whatever else. (Caveat: when she's tired she gets silly and sloppy and that's annoying).

She's in the "poop, toot, pee pee" phase. That is, every Christmas song she sings she substitutes one of the afore-mentioned words in and thinks it's hilarious. Her silliness with "poop" has recently worked to my advantage. The "squirmy, wormy germs in your mouoth, YUCKY!" has lost its effect in getting her to brush her teeth. What HAS recently worked: "Anna, those squirmy, wormy germs are pooping all over in your mouth! You need to brush them out!" Yes. That's working nicely. What? You wish YOU'D have thought of it.

She's also into eating her boogers. That's right, I'm calling her out on this blog so that when she's older and reading this, she's embarrassed. She thinks it's funny. And we do not. So now she'll say she ate her boogers, when really she didn't, just to make it a game. Tis the season of snot, and boogers are plentiful. To her credit, she's claiming she doesn't do it anymore. But who knows, really?

We both came down with a slight case of the crud. Nothing too serious, just some extra gunk that caused her to cough in her sleep for around a week, and I have the gunk in my head and chest. Annoying. In fact, she coughed a few times right into my personal space, and I knew instantly I'd just become innoculated with her crud. She's been reminded to cough into her elbow (the new trend, you know) and she's now really good about it.

Incidentally, she hasn't been sick since she was a baby. I don't even remember the last time she had an actual fever, though I do remember long periods of coughing at night. If at this point she were to become sick, I don't even know how she'd take it. And myself likewise. I'm not even sure what's out there to treat sickness in kids these days. I've lost track of the new restrictions in cough/cold medicines, and the additions of homeopathic rememdies. I guess it'll come to me quickly enough when the day should come that she'd get sick and I'm scrambling for peace.

What else to report here? Mom's spent the last 2 weeks with us helping out at Paul's clinic since he's lost his administrative staff until Jan 1. It was fun having her here, especially this time of year, and I know Anna loved it :)

Did I mention a few weekends ago we camped out at NASA? There was a camping event aimed at sitting around camp fires, listening to NASA speakers and stuff (we'd planned to go as a family just to listen and camp out but they asked me to be a speaker so I spoke about space station science). There were also telescopes set up, and Anna got to see Jupiter and its moons! She LOVED it! She was SO EXCITED! The next day I had to speak about space station science at the Italian Embassy in downtown Houston, which was really neat, and then we made it over to the Holiday in the Park Festival in League City. We've been going since Anna was 1 and they usually have tons of rides and games. This year there were wayyy less rides. Weird. I guess the recession is affecting everyone.

Dude, I totally have pictures to post for all of these events. I should really do that.

We actually got our Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, I think. It was early! And easy! A real tree, just like every year. I have pictures of that, too. NEED TO POST THEM. Will do...just so busy at work, and in the evenings I'm too tired :)

Paul's clinic is thriving. Clients keep coming. But the money battles with insurance just leads to an unsteady cash flow. We've got to figure out how to nip that in the bud and we're about to try some new tactics. We're also in negotiations on a new lease at a bigger property across from where the clinic is now. The clinic needs more space. Face it, it's growing. Oh! Also, there was a local news crew who came out to do a piece on Paul's clinic back in October and it finally aired last week before Monday Night Football. They did a FANTASTIC JOB! It was so fun to watch! I'm so proud of him! When I get a link to the piece, I'll post it here. He's doing what he loves, and it's all working out, with the exception of some glitches that need to be fixed to optimize the cash flow. He's a master of manifesting. It dawned on me that he has been visualizing clinic success as enjoying what he's doing, healing people, and allowing new opportunities, which is GREAT, but I don't think cash has been a major factor in his thought process. Isn't that great? Most people dream about having cash. Money is usually a goal. It's not Paul's: we both live by "do what you love and the money will come." We see this as true but the devil is also in the details, and he has realized that there are processes that need to be optimized to allow for more cash to come into the clinic. So it's in the works! Time for a new year with new, improved processes. We are 3.5 years into this clinic and it still always seems new.

Anyway, I guess this is long enough. Hope all is well with you out there. Will post pictures soon. What a fantastic year! Let's have another, shall we?