This picture came to mind when I received last week's prompt. I took it in 2006 at my paternal grandmother's apartment. The baby in the framed picture is me, photographed by my uncle in 1971. Grandma gave this picture to me when we visited in 2010. It now sits in my scrapbooking area.
I think my youngest daughter (soon-to-be 6) resembles my maternal grandmother, so I had her pose with a picture of Grandma, taken when she was about 2 or 3 years old. I almost managed to capture the same expression. After this, Georgia gave me some great smiles to photograph, but I thought this worked better with the picture she was holding.
I've had this blog post in draft for a week, but couldn't find time to finish it. The past week was a doozy -- perhaps my least favourite week of 2011. Glad it's behind me!
- Sunday evening, Georgia came down with a terrible stomach bug -- the worst I've ever seen in any of my children. I was up with her for much of the night. She stayed home from school for two days. I stayed home from work Monday morning so I could get some sleep.
- Monday evening, I went shopping for specific-coloured clothing for the girls to wear in their Christmas concert (deep purple for Sophia; dark green for Madeline -- not easy to find!). Thankfully, we were able to borrow some items from my niece, as well. Of course, I wish I had dealt with this sooner. #notetoself
- Tuesday, I came down with the dreadful stomach bug and had to leave work about 10:30 am. I went back to work Wednesday afternoon, worked all day Thursday, then had a relapse Thursday evening -- while my children were performing in their school Christmas concert, of all times. I felt increasingly ill through the 2-hour concert, but managed to stay seated on a wish and a prayer. The ginger Gravol I took may have helped, too. We arrived home just in the nick of time.
- While I was ill at home Tuesday evening, Neil took Sophia and Madeline to their back-to-back ringette practices (same location, luckily). Neil also had to help on ice for Madeline's practice. Thankfully, Georgia was a very good girl at home while I slept on and off.
- On Wednesday (when I was feeling perfectly fine), I attended a work appreciation event that included supper, drinks, and a Pats hockey game at the Brandt Centre. I stayed for the whole game as it was a close one. Unfortunately, the game ended with an overtime goal for the other team (Kelowna). In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have gone. Why have an event like this on December 14? Yeesh.
- After I got home from the Pats game, and after reading to the girls, I decided to go to Walmart. Madeline was tremendously upset over the pants and dress options we had given her for the Christmas concert, so I went to get her some black pants. I should really know better than to insist she wear something she hates; she's always been very particular. I didn't get home until after 11:30 pm, but I made Madeline VERY happy.
- Thursday morning, I noticed the oil light was flickering intermittently on the van. When I got to work, there was a burning smell. I checked the oil and there was NONE! So I had the van towed to Toyota (glad to have my CAA membership!) and hoped for the best. Toyota fixed it the next day (even though they were "booking into next week") and there was no engine damage. We just had to replace a sensor that had failed and released all of the oil. Phew! Close call.
- My work group (Customer Self Serve) had a great potluck lunch on Thursday. Neil made Bison Short Rib Stew for me to take (his own recipe; I'll post it sometime). He made it Wednesday evening and then I re-heated it in a crock pot at work on Thursday morning. I'm very lucky Neil will prepare food for me!
- The girls' Christmas concert was delightful (of course!). It was held at the Orr Centre, a fantastic venue with theatre seating. The school's music teacher always does an amazing job of planning the entire concert which only happens once every three years (this is just our second one in six years at the school). I'm very glad we can get a DVD of this year's concert. I'll certainly enjoy it more the next time I see it!
- Friday, after working almost all day (I slept an extra 90 minutes to recover from my second round of illness) and supper at home, we all went to the Cornwall Centre so the girls could get Christmas gifts for each other. They had been asking to go for weeks. We came out with five out of six gifts purchased. I had set their budget at $6 per gift, but quickly realized there's very little you can buy for less than $6 (at Claire's, anyway). I let them spend $10 per gift. Sophia also got three out of four Secret Santa gifts for one of her classmates.
- Among numerous household chores, Saturday included Sophia's piano lesson and ringette practice (Neil took her to both), and Madeline's ringette game (which we all attended; as well as my Mom). We also managed to get started on gift wrapping (just the girls' gifts to each other). The girls were wondering if we'd ever have gifts under our tree. They feel better now.
- Today was quite full with lots of dishes, Sophia baking muffins, Madeline's dance class, lots of Christmas shopping (Neil was armed with a list and his efforts brought us into the range of 3/4 complete. Yay!), and Sophia's piano recital at 4:30 pm. It's been a major struggle trying to get Sophia to practice piano this fall (she won't return after this year). Thankfully, she decided a couple days ago that she didn't want to mess up her recital song so she practiced quite a bit yesterday and today, and succeeded in playing Jingle Bells very nicely at the recital. :)
And Picture the Holidays? I've missed six days now. Momentum. Lost. :( I will try to start again tomorrow (I was enjoying it!), but I won't even try to do the missed prompts until I'm off work. Just four more work days (and much to do in the evenings) and then I have 11 days off! Oh, how I need it.
