Today was full. This morning A had her one-year checkup and shots. The doctor didn’t have much to say, he laughed and said he wasn’t going to answer me when I asked (rather tongue in cheek) whether he was concerned about her losing some weight. LOL Picked up lunch at Wendy’s then home to finish up some work. Waiting on client confirmation.

C had dance class at 4:15, we were borderline late getting there, all my own fault, I was dawdling on Facebook. Whoops. Anyway… hoping she doesn’t catch whatever bug this other little girl was carrying. The teacher has a policy that anyone arriving sick will be sent home. Apparently this other mom didn’t read that, or didn’t care, or figured her kid could stay under the radar. When we were back to pick the kids up she was asking her daughter if she felt better enough for so and so to come over, and the girl was saying maybe if she went home and had a nap first, and her legs were tired, and she needed to be carried… then the mom looks at us and says, “I think she might be coming on with something, I don’t know.” Grr. Anyway, I scrubbed C’s hands with sanitizer and I’m hoping for the best.

Then back home, quick supper, and A’s birthday festivities at 6:00. Mom and Dad came over with D, Gram and Gramp came for a while, and DH's mom came later on with B. Mom and I both had little presents for C, but she was much more interested in A’s! A got a baby doll and a set of musical maracas from us, a doll with crinkly bumblebee wings from Mom, a musical night-time Winnie the Pooh “from D”, and an electronic/musical toy phone from MIL, SIL and B. And let me tell you, she KNEW that those toys were HERS. No way was she willingly going to let C cart them off. It was kind of funny, actually. Then we had cake – I gave A a little one to play with while I took some pictures, then cut her off a piece of it to actually munch on. She made a mess, but that was the point. Messy frosting makes cute birthday pictures. :) I had a chocolate swirl cheesecake for the grownups. Yum. And it was just the right size that we each had a little piece and there were no leftovers for me to eat tomorrow. :P

A has a little bit of a cold again – I don’t think it’s going to develop into anything though. Mostly just a runny nose, and a little cough sometimes. But between that and her needles this morning, I gave her a dose of Motrin at bedtime. So far she’s handled all of her shots really well, but at a year they give two so it could be a little more bothersome. Our previous doctor gave three, he gave the chicken pox vaccine as a matter of course. But our current doctor doesn’t. When I booked the appointment the secretary told me that if I wanted that one he’d do it, but it was one that I needed to ask for. I didn’t ask for it. I’m pretty much indifferent to whether she has that shot or not, so I didn’t bring it up.

I'm watching the bailout debate in the US with some interest, and the economic situation as a whole. I have to say, I totally agree with the caller who phoned in the other day, either to Glenn or to Rush, and said he’d rather see the country go through another depression than saddle the coming generations with such a massive debt. I agree with that completely, and with the view that this is making responsible people accountable for the mistakes and poor decision-making of others. Like making us pay the mortgage on a neighbor’s house, but letting them still live there so we don’t get anything from the property we’re stuck paying for. It just seems really wrong.

And then there is the matter of them limiting executive compensation. I’ve heard it tossed around as part of this deal, that they want to limit how much someone can make. That makes me just sick. Talk about tearing the guts out of capitalism and the free market. Now don’t get me wrong, I think there should be something in place to keep people from taking 22 million dollar bonuses out of their company while it’s circling the drain. But I don’t think the government has any business telling executive XYZ that he is only “allowed” to take home this many dollars. Some people are aguing for it, saying, “Why should some guy be making ten times more than you when he’s sitting in an office somewhere and you’re out there working?” And I guess I understand how someone could feel like that's an injustice. But it's part of the deal... if you want to have a free economy, where people are free to pursue their business, set their own prices, etc etc etc, I don't think it's reasonable or even safe to try to impose limits on people's income. Unless, like I said, it's a situation where someone is taking money out of a company that's failing, or in the case of a payroll that is taxpayer-supported.

The "big storm" was pretty much a non-event here. They were giving some bad forecasts, but the storm wobbled westward as it approached and Shelburne ended up taking the brunt of it. Yarmouth lost a couple of trees – one big one on that sharp corner by the hospital, in particular. A couple of signs came down, and a lot of branches. A big old barn up here in Port Maitland blew down, too, but it was abandoned years and years ago from the look of it. Nothing happened here at all except for one little power flicker. The kids were in bed early, then woke up later on. Got them back into bed, Cara was grouchy and A put up a fight, but eventually they both went back to sleep, and they were both in their OWN beds. A slept in her bed til past 4:00. Woohoo! Tonight they were both in bed at a little past 8:00, again in their OWN beds. A’s had a few little bouts of coughing but hasn’t woken up yet.

I realized tonight that in some ways this could be a good experience for me. I’m taking the time to focus more on losing weight and eating healthier, I’m paying a little more attention to what needs to be done around here, I’m trying to be a little more efficient with my time and get routines in place… I miss him like the dickens, but maybe having some time where I’m the only adult will help me to develop a little more discipline. I’m so not looking forward to the next stage of training, though. That longer separation of minimum five months makes me a little queasy.

This was DH's first "leave weekend" where they can actually leave the base. Hopefully things went well and no one on the platoon did anything on the weekend that will reflect poorly on the group as a whole. Apparently there are guys in St Jean who like to to beat up new recruits. So much for my little happy bubble of delusion where I think training is nice and safe. *sigh* I know, “safe” and “military” don’t really go well together. LOL

Oh - and he got his first performance evaluation today :) Everything was acceptable or 'improving' so he's doing well.