Last year, I learned to take life day-by-day because if I carry past disappointments with me, I will be overwhelmed with worry and if I think about what could happen or try to plan too far ahead, then I will have unnecessary troubles for which I simply do not have the time.
This week was pretty hard for us. Thank goodness Jackson is all right. Lee and I dealt with some crummy things which made the days drag and made us feel like taking a break from life's responsibilities to sort everything out.
First of all, I had conjunctivitis in both eyes which was more annoying than anything. (Jackson had a mild case of it last week, but nothing severe. Whenever I catch it from him, my eyes go completely red, swollen, and itchy.)
On top of that, my USB drive on which I have all of my school files has something wrong with it and I cannot access any of them. It's an encrypted one and I can tell that all of the data is still on it, but I am unable to open them because of some weird error message that I haven't seen before appearing. Currently, I am trying to arrange for an IT person at the company to try to fix it; however, arranging that meeting and finding a suitable time when their offices are open is a pain in itself. (Losing all of these files would be the equivalent of a filing cabinet of hard copies going up in flames.)
Lastly, Lee's job is in a precarious situation because the head honchos are trying to save money by cutting people left and right. One quarter of his team was let go in one day last month and every week, there seems to be a day of dismissal where people all over the 2,000-person company are called to an office labelled "Room 10," shown the door, and never to be seen again, leaving an ominous, empty void for those left behind.
With all of these things to deal with this week, it was quite refreshing to have a few bright spots along the way to help us make it through the trying times. Two of my good friends at work, Cathy and Linda, very kindly surprised me with a chocolate treat to brighten my day. On Friday, when I went to the local bakery to get my lunch, the nice lady behind the counter, Sam, gave me a free slice of cake to try--and she didn't even know about our troubles! Yesterday, when we ordered two pizzas for lunch/dinner to share with Lee's family when they visited, the delivery woman showed up with three pizzas because she said one of the pizzas 'touched the top of the oven' but that we could have it if we wanted. It looked fine to me! All of these generous offerings helped to brighten our week.
It may be the Christmas spirit in full swing. Or maybe we are just fortunate to be surrounded by really caring, thoughtful people. Whatever the explanation is, we are so thankful for people's kindnesses and can only hope to share the love and spread the good feelings to those in need especially during the Christmas season.
Beginning to set-up the decorations for Christmas, helping to put up the tree last weekend. He liked putting the star on the top and laying out all of the ornaments in a row before putting them on the branches.
More practice with trimming the tree at nursery
Deep in conversation on a wintry walk at nursery--I can't tell if he's debating or settling a dispute
Sailing the Seven Seas
Developmental updates: Jackson has come up with new ways to avoid following instructions. When I put him in his car seat, but before I could connect the buckle, he decided that he was going to crawl out of the other side because he just wasn't ready to go home yet. But that wasn't the end of his escape plan. He played to his strengths (cuteness, being one of them) and danced on the back seat of the car to Jackson 5's ABC which was playing on the iPad. I was worried about his balancing skills, but he safely danced until the song finished. Other than the dance escape method, he relies on other distraction techniques to try to get out of doing things he doesn't like--having his teeth brushed being one of them. Recently, he actually tried falling asleep on the couch to get out of this nightly routine! He threw himself face-down on the couch, closed his eyes, and went into a comatose state within seconds. Jackson keeps us laughing every day with his growing personality.
If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.
