Journal Entry #500

The Mundane

HEALTH:
I am fine. I don’t know what the fever was, but it hit hard and left just as quickly. Ian is still suffering from his intestinal issues. After going to work Monday and Tuesday with visitors from Embassy Accra, he took today off and is drinking fluids and sleeping. Katherine’s ear is all better, but now Rebecca has an earache. Jonathon has had two wet bed nights in a row, something that hasn’t happened in a year or more. He’s probably growing again.
HALLOWEEN:
The Halloween party went well at the school. We made an awesome cake for the cake walk, the rain didn’t ruin it all, and the Marines scared the pants off kids in the haunted house. Jonathon almost missed the whole party. Just as we were climbing in the car, he decided he didn’t want Nicholas sitting next to him (the drive is all of 3 minutes to the school), so he bit him. Out came Jonathon, and I sent the rest of the family on to the festival.
Well, I was going to simply stay home, but the decision gnawed at me. He’s 4 and he’d been looking forward to the Halloween festival for weeks. Was it fair to have him miss out completely even though he committed a serious offense? After a half hour of solid crying (him, not me) we made a deal. He would have to apologize directly to Nicholas once we arrived, and when it was time to leave, he had to do so without complaint even though he wouldn’t have as much time to play as the other kids did. He agreed, so we set off down the street, him wearing full Spiderman gear. We drew quite a few stares from the folks on the street.
There were booths set up all around for bean bag toss, mini golf, fishing, face painting. Plenty of food to buy, most didn’t get soaked by the rain. Unfortunately, many of the booths were left up to highschoolers to run, with no adult guidance. The cakewalk was one such activity, but it never really got off the ground since we were one of about 3 people to bring a cake. For some reason, ours disappeared behind a piano (the cakewalk was in the music room) and when the kids asked to participate (yes, to win their own cake back), the highschoolers put slices of some other cake in their hands, shooed them out and shut the door. We never saw that cake again and as far as I know, no one actually won it. Hmmmm, where could it have gone? For those wondering, it was a Betty Crocker chocolate dome cake with white icing.
LIBRARY:
The library is coming along nicely. All that’s left is the section on mythology and poetry. Those books haven’t been cracked open in a decade. Thanks to my dad for sending such awesome library posters!
SABLE:
Sable has her ups and down. I guess dogs go through grow spurts just like people do, right now she’s not eating anything and sleeping all day long. She’s finally big enough to stand on the stop step in the pool, but she still doesn’t like it much. She’s learned the command Sit, and we’re working on Stay, Come, and Fetch. My parents set her a set of her very own tennis balls. Once she’s up and perky again, we’ll give her one to chase.
HHE:
I thought our HHE was supposed to arrive on a boat yesterday, but it’s now scheduled to arrive on Friday. Friday happens to be a holiday for the Embassy but that’s OK because it will probably take a couple weeks for our shipment to progress through port customs once it’s offloaded.
We took possession of our car last week! We’re so happy to have it here. It drives extremely well even on these roads and it’s a gorgeous car to boot.
R&R:
Thanks so much for all the recommendations for our trip! They’ve been as varied as South Africa, Greece and Sweden and if anything, they’re making a Final Decision that much more difficult!