March Update

My goodness! I haven't updated since September! I've been thinking about it. Listing in my head all the things I should comment on. All the progress Gooseberry has made since starting school. But then I think of all the emotional energy I have to pour into that, and I go work on something else, instead. And the tribute to Alan Rickman I need to write? Forget about it.

Living with the in-laws is a study in lying low. Making us as small as possible. It's better than the first go-round in 2012; I don't feel like *I* have to be smaller, just that we need to make as small a footprint as possible. I'm worried about the next month or two, though. My mother-in-law snapped an old rod in her knee a couple weeks back and had surgery on it yesterday. Because of the damage done by a rod that was apparently too small, they had to put her in a whole-leg cast...which she can't lift because of her extremely advanced rheumatoid arthritis. So I have no idea how she's going to do things she needs to do - private sorts of things - when I'm the only person in the house. Suddenly, getting a job seems even more enticing than usual...

Life is stressful right now, mostly because our spring break was cancelled due to lice. We were supposed to spend ten days in California with my family after spending a day at Disney. Instead, we got the notice that someone in Gooseberry's classroom had lice the day before we were supposed to leave. So we spent that night and the following morning shampooing and washing and doing our best to mitigate the problem...because all three of us had evidence of the nasty little buggers. But the washing machine sort of broke, making things even more difficult. I didn't want to infect my mom and brothers, so we ended up going to Disney for a day, driving up to have breakfast with my family, and then coming back to Phoenix. It was a LOT of driving, and exhausting. We still have to go through the follow-up treatment tomorrow or the next day, and then maybe I can stop worrying about. (Except I won't...because Arizona is a superlice state, filled with little bugs who genetically aren't affected by the over-the-counter stuff. GROSS.) Really, that's my life right now. GROSS.

And that's really all we've got going on right now. Exciting, right? I could tell Disney stories - Gooseberry was wonderful and loved it SO MUCH. But I have to get to my professional stuff now, before the day is gone and I've frittered it away. :)

Enjoy your spring (Yay, spring!), and may you never have to learn how to kill lice. (Also, never ever EVER do an internet search to find out what they look like, even for reference. Just...don't.)