Great Hair Days and Other Thankfuls

It is incredibly, amazingly, beautiful outside today, a glorious fall afternoon. I'm looking out as I write at the flaming red maple tree in my front yard while the sun streams in through the window showing all the cat nose prints on the glass. How can you NOT be thankful on a day like this? Here are ten ways I'M thankful:

1. You may remember an earlier blog post where I told about my daughter losing her position on the volleyball team (even after being told she had done nothing wrong) to an older girl who was moved down to JV from Varsity. She still plays, but only subs in for two rotations. She's been upset the entire time, but that girl has taken it like a champ and not shown it at practice or at games, always bringing her game face. The season ended last night with a big win for JV, and just when we thought our season was over, Emma was asked by the Varsity coach to dress out when the Varsity team plays in Districts next week. It was a badly needed boost in confidence for her, although she is pretty unlikely actually to play during the game. If she doesn't get to play, then, by golly, she'll be the prettiest bench sitter there! 

2. I'm doing my best to get the antibiotics down Fletcher after his diagnosis of possible pancreatitis. I won't say it's going WELL, but, thankfully, SOME of the medicine is getting into his belly. The first time I tried, I did the surprise grab-him-with-one-hand-and-squirt-the-medicine-in-his-mouth-with-the-other tactic, which was pretty much a failure. He deflected a lot of it and it landed on the floor, where Ruby promptly licked it up. The next time, I had Emma hold him while I squirted it in his mouth, at which time he literally FOAMED AT THE MOUTH to get rid of it. It was time to get the big guns out, then, so I now give him a little spoonful of (expensive) canned food, squirt the medicine on top, and then goober it around with a spoon before giving him the food. He has fallen for it every time but once, when he refused to eat the food. It was back to Emma holding him while I squirted the medicine in his mouth (and may I add here that the amount of medicine is no more than 1/4 of a teaspoon and it's CHICKEN FLAVORED).This time, he not only foamed at the mouth but also walked across the tile floor and ralphed on the rug. I guess I'm getting enough of it into him, because not only has he not thrown up anywhere this week (that I can find...), his belly hair is growing back, because he isn't licking it any more. 

The day I foolishly gave each kitty a spoonful of canned food.

3. Emma agreed to give Fletcher his medicine the other night when I was just too darn tired to go downstairs and do it, in exchange for me buying her a container of cotton candy-flavored ice cream. Deal!

4. I received the most adorable drawing from a preschooler. She is in the primary class next door to me on the days I teach pre-k, and she is absolutely darling! She brought me this picture that she drew of us (and bear in mind she is only 3 years old and has used remarkable detail):

5. Did you know I have a chicken? Well, sort of. My amazing friend Zoe at Rewritten had a chicken catastrophe (or maybe a foxtastrophe is more like it) and lost some of her chickens. A neighbor kindly gave her some chicks to make up for her loss, and it made me think of the story of my great aunt Daisy, who once had a pet chicken. Zoe wanted to name a chick the same name as Daisy's chicken, but no one in my family knew what the chicken's name was (it's only been 100 years since the pet chicken days). Instead, Zoe named it Daisy Dillon, after my great aunt AND after me. She sends me pictures and updates on Daisy. Last weekend, however, Daisy almost met her end. A fox got in the chicken yard and was after her and a rooster. As Zoe put it, Daisy didn't have to outrun the fox; she only had to outrun the rooster, which she did. So while the demise of the rooster is sad, I am thankful my Daisy can outrun a stupid boy and will continue on her way to being a productive chicken.

Daisy Dillon, eating bugs and stuff.

6. My car has a little problem with burning oil, especially when you first start the car. You know how the Wicked Witch of the West always enters and exits in a cloud of smoke? Yeah, that's me in my car. We fill it with oil and check the gas these days, so my husband did just that before I drove the two plus hours to Emma's last volleyball game last night. I was on the edge of town, where the speed limit increases to 45 mph shortly before the entrance ramp to the highway, when I noticed the hood of the car was bouncing up and down. Quickly pulling into a gravel parking lot, I jumped out of the car in my sock feet (I had pulled off my boots for the drive) and found the hood was not latched. I'm thankful I noticed it before I got on the highway, because at 70 mph, it might have flown up. If it was my husband's attempt to kill me, then I'm thankful I have been tipped off and will know not to eat any mushrooms he tries to serve me....

7. During circle time yesterday in my primary class (3 year olds), I let each of them tell me something. One talked about a car he had seen on the way to school, one told me a story about her brother. And one girl said, "I have on underwear!" Yeah, thankful for that.

8. I've had a burning question about milk trucks for the past few months, and I finally got my answer! At one of the volleyball games this week, the grandparents of a girl on the freshman team came to watch them play, and the grandfather had on a Mid-American Dairy cap, and as he was leaving the gym after the game, I leaped out of the stands and chased him down to ask him whether butter forms in milk tanker trunks as they go from dairy farm to dairy farm and then to the dairy to process the milk. I thought maybe all that sloshing of non-homogenized milk would mean the truck was acting like a giant churn as it rolled along, but he told me the milk was too cold for that to happen. Kind of disappointing, because I was really imagining chunks of butter floating around in there, but at least I have an answer.

9. Great hair days. The humidity is at just the right level this time of year to get great curls with little frizz. A little mousse, a little blow dry, BAM! Hair done. 

10. Sonic drinks. I've been thankful before for Sonic happy hour, with half price drinks from 4-6 pm every day (EVERY DAY!), but they also have half price large drinks in the mornings before 10 am. This didn't matter to me so much before, but now that the new high school is open, I drive right by a Sonic every morning. And since I am boycotting the convenience store nearest my house because it was sold to Casey's General Stores and their prices went up and the quality of the drinks went down, a little stop at Sonic a couple of mornings a week ($1.07 with tax) makes my morning, especially when coupled with a good hair day. I'm unstoppable on days like that! 

Shhh! Don't wake her up!

What are you thankful for this week? How's your hair? Wearing underwear? Get a great mystery solved for you? Link up below. You won't be sorry!

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